Is Cat Zingano the One to Finally Beat Rousey?

After her very impressive win at UFC 178, UFC #1 women’s bantamweight Cat Zingano ran over to UFC President Dana White and screamed “Do you see me?” According to White, all he could say was ” Yes, I see you.”

Forget Gina

It’s been months since Dana White has been trying to bring back Gina Carano to the UFC in an effort to stage a mega fight with current women’s champion Ronda Rousey. But getting Carano to sign has been very difficult and complicated for the Zuffa executive. And while that issue has dragged forward, UFC 178 came.

UFC 178 was supposed to be about Jones and Cormier, but that fight was called off. Mighty Mouse was promoted to the main event, while the other highly anticipated fights were Eddie Alvarez’s UFC debut and Conor McGregor’s fight with Dustin Poirier. But one fight may have stolen the show and made White forget about Gina Carano once and for all – Zingano vs Nunes.

Worth the wait

It has been 17 months since Cat Zingano dominated Meisha Tate in her UFC debut and a lot has happened since then. Zingano was injured and was forced off her coaching stint at TUF 18. She would have fought Ronda Rousey in the finale. But that was not it, a personal tragedy struck Zingano in January when her husband Mauricio committed suicide. That tragedy further moved back her return to the octagon.

But it was worth the wait.

Zingano was ambushed by #8 Amanda Nunes in the first round of their UFC 178 fight and was getting busted up with the Lioness on top position. But Zingano didn’t waver. She mustered enough courage to survive the opening onslaught and was able to return to her feet before the round was over. She then turned it on by throwing Nunes to the mat just before the end of the first round.

Zingano wasted no time in Round two and tossed Nunes to the ground once again to earn top position. This time, she didn’t give her opponent the chance to recover. Zingano bloodied Nunes with hard punches and elbows and ended the bout with a brutal ground and pound at the 1:21 mark of round 2.

Definitely a title shot

Zingano didn’t say much during her post fight interview except that she wanted to go home to her child. That was expected after all the hard times that she’s been through. But to have the courage to comeback and fight again after all that she has been through, it was amazing. Add the fact that she faced tremendous adversity in round one of her comeback makes her story more inspiring and incredible.

White said that Zingano will definitely be Rousey’s next challenger. With this great comeback as a storyline, who needs Gina Carano anyway? Not the UFC and not women’s MMA.

Rousey versus Zingano should be one of the biggest fights in 2015.