Ronda Rousey "most dominant athlete in the world"?

Apparently she's been voted the most dominant athlete in the world.... While I agree she's a phenomenal fighter, I don't see how it's a very accurate statement to make when the sport she is in doesn't have nearly enough depth of talent of basically any other sport out there.

Ronda Rousey lands Sports Illustrated cover, labeled 'World's Most Dominant Athlete' | Cagewriter - Yahoo Sports

Business Insider Names Ronda Rousey No. 1 ‘Most Dominant Athlete Alive’

Most dominant woman athlete. Tough to say. If you want to consider dominant as in her sport. Then yea because she's probably a 95/100 on fighting, but the next woman is probably a 70. The sports is relatively new for woman. It probably wont grow nearly as much as the men's did. So she's dominant because there is no one besides her even close to her level.

It's not like Serena Williams who came out and took woman's tennis by storm when woman's tennis has had a lot of competitive athletes playing the sport for decades.

I think Rousey is a bit overhyped because she's faced no-one of substantial talent. I would throw Serena Williams, even at 32 out there. Also maybe Abby Wamback as well, who might end up the greatest American woman soccer player of all time.

Well, here is the definition from one of the articles.

Then they put Messi at #7..

I would put him #1 especially if you want to talk about how many more people he is dominate over it is not even close.. There are over 265M people in the world that participate in soccer....  Messi is head and shoulders above everyone..  Just tell me how many girls fight in MMA competitions, or even how many people play basketball or football or any other sport?  It is not even close trust me.

I agree with your point about the number of people in the sport being a very important factor. Since women's MMA is still pretty new and there are so few professional women fighters I just don't see how they can justify classifying her as "most dominant". There are even some who question her current dominance in women's MMA because she hasn't fought Cristiane  Cyborg' Justino.

Plus she had a fight coming up on Aug 1st... What happens if she loses that? Does that lady become the most dominate athlete in the world? I wonder if their choice was driven more by how much PR they could generate rather than really trying to get to the bottom of it?

"Most dominant" as a phrase was chosen carefully because it doesn't take into account whether or not the competition is any good. If I make up a sport called jamoball, and I get @iacas , @Golfingdad , and @cipher to play, but the sport requires my exact fingerprint to win, then I'm going to be dominant. I might not be very skilled at jamoball (particularly if the rest of the sport resembles golf), but I'm still dominant. (It's a little sad how extreme of a situation I had to concoct to assure that I could be dominant at something. :~()

That's fine, they can give her what ever they want.. All it does is just make this award worthless in my eyes.. Not that they care what I think.. ;)

I was going to write a response but Eyad actually summed it up pretty well.

For a pretty long stretch, Anderson Silva not only dominated his weight in the UFC, but he made even the best fighters look horrible while doing it. I can't remember if he was ever named most dominant athlete though. I understand that she's dominated her specific sport, but it's hard for me to take a statement of her being overall more dominant than any other athlete very serious. The UFC has had many Champs who seemed unbeatable as it's grown, but now that the sport is much more flush with talent *on the men's side* any fight could go any way. I think Jon Jones is probably a more dominant fighter than Rousey just by the caliber of talent he's been able to beat. I guess it just goes back to, when you lower the standard to what it requires to be "the most dominant athlete" it just makes it mean so much less to me.

I already said I would consider Jon Jones more dominant in their specific sport based on the stronger talent he's had to fight and beat. The strength of talent competed against makes a difference to me. Do I think she should be on a list of top 10, sure, but I just don't think the strength of talent she's competed against doesn't warrant her being number 1.

If we are talking this year, I'd say Serena Williams, She's 25-1 and the caliber of opponent she faces against is also well above what Ronda sees. I believe some list has Serena at #2, I haven't really checked into it.

Bones v Rousey is a decent debate. He hasn't lost, although he has lost rounds over the past few years. Serena has lost once and even in her wins has lost multiple sets. Ronda hasn't lost a round, hasn't lost 1 minute of any fight she's ever been in. She's fought the top 5 contenders and only went past a couple minutes with 1, i believe. The field isn't as deep as men's light heavyweight or women's tennis but that doesn't mean the level of competition is markedly lower.

The bolded is the only thing I disagree with. That's based only on the women's fights I've watched. There are very few woman who have made fighting their entire life's focus like most top end athletes have done when it comes to their sports. Rousey has always focused on fighting just like most of the men in sport do, and that's what gives her that distinct advantage. I think it's unfortunate because I would like to see her go up against a truly tough opponent. Like I said, she definitely deserves to be on the list of dominant athletes, I just don't agree with her being #1.