Ronda would absolutely crush Kayla in MMA. Ronda has adapted to no-gi grappling in a way that no other judoka in MMA has been able to
That's definitely true. There's been some quality jodokas in MMA (Karo Parisyan, Manny Gamburyian, Yoshihiro Akiyama, various Gracies), but nobody has had the kind of success in using judo in MMA like Ronda has. Obviously, a lot of that is because of her raw talent, training, and intelligence, but I think a lot of her success is simply due to the fact that womens' MMA, unfortunately, isn't up to snuff yet. Women's MMA isn't "new", but the generation of fighters is new to the sport, unlike men's MMA, where so many fighters grew up watching it. Thus, most are kickboxers or whatever turned MMArtists, and aren't prepared for the kind world-class level of talent Ronda has. If you look at the records of the rest UFC's woman fighters, it's a mess. Apart from Misha Tate, they've all lost at least one of their last 2 (or more) fights. Which means that they're all pretty equally matched. I wouldn't even say Tate is a contender, Ronda having beaten her twice already, but she's the only one that justifies a title shot. Ronda is just that many levels above the rest of her competition. Like Royce was in the first UFCs. It won't be for many more years that we'll see anyone that can approach her talent, I think. Younger fighters that grew up watching Gina Carrano and Cyborg battle it out in Strikeforce and started training then won't be ready for another 7-12 years. Ronda had a head-start because of her judo training. Of course, she's T/KO'd 3 of her last 4 opponents, so now they've got that to worry about as well. Personally, I think Sara McMann is the only one that can approach Ronda when it comes to life-long skill; she's a world-class wrestler. Didn't get to see it though, since Ronda took her out in just over a minute with a knee to the body.
The only woman in MMA that I think can compare to Ronda is Megumi Fugii. 26 wins with 3 losses, 19 wins by submission. Only losses were by decision. I don't count Cyborg, since she's a juicer. And I don't think a fight between her and Ronda should happen unless Cyborg can make 135. If she wasn't a juicer, then I'd say the superfight should happen, and I'd be willing to bet that Ronda would accept the fight. Apparently, Cyborg's next fight is at 140, so she seems to be on her way down. And I hope it happens. I'd also like to see Marloes Coenen make it down to 135 (and into the UFC), but I don't know if that's possible either. These girls are running out of people to fight. Otherwise, it's going to be another 7-12 years before we see women's MMA at the level men's is at now.
