The UFC’s decision in December to make Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche the main event over the highly anticipated light heavyweight battle between former Pride champion Dan Henderson (29-8) and former UFC champion Lyoto Machida (18-3) initially drew a negative reaction from a member of Henderson’s camp.
Henderson has since said he’s fine with it — not only is he a fight fan, but it means the MMA veteran has to fight only three rounds instead of five.
Add Machida to the list of those approving: “No problem for me. I appreciate that.”
Bantamweight Urijah Faber said it was cool to see such a historic event taking place, especially with a 2008 Olympic judo bronze medalist in Rousey facing a former U.S. Marine sergeant in Carmouche.
“You’ve got an Olympic athlete and a military veteran. It’s a lot of the same storylines you’ve seen throughout the history of our sport,” said Faber, who will fight Ivan Menjivar on the main card. “It’s great to see the women stepping in and doing it big.”
When someone inquired about Faber possibly facing bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz for a third time, “The California Kid” came up with this gem.
“I’d rather fight Ronda at this point,” he joked. “She’s got 185,000 followers on Twitter and Dominick has about 75 (thousand), so … Ronda, let’s do this!”