Ronda Rousey Is the Next Gina Carano, Except with MMA Skills

Ronda Rousey has made quite a name for herself since debuting in Strikeforce in August of this year. Her performance in the cage has only been outdone by her work in front of a microphone and she believes she is well on her way to "Gina Carano Status."

Rousey isn't afraid of controversy; in fact she welcomes it. In an article on MMAfighting.com, Rousey tells us that she doesn't care what the people are talking about, as long as it's her.

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"I want to be the most talked about girl in women's MMA. If there's a lot of controversy, people saying I suck, I'm cocky, or it was a good fight or an amazing move -- as long as there's polarizing opinions and people want to discuss it."

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She also made quite a few headlines with regards to looks and women's MMA.

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"I mean, it's more entertaining to watch two [attractive] girls wrestling around than two ugly girls wrestling around," said Rousey. "I'm sorry I had to like, point out the elephant in the room, but that's the truth. That's what people want to see and that's what's going to sell tickets and that's what's going to make money and that's what's going to get all of us a better salary. So yes, I think it's very important for there to be good-looking girls fighting." (via MMAfighting.com)

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It's hard to argue with Rousey's point. It may not be fair or right to say who deserves better fights based on looks, but at the end of the day, look at who the more popular women's MMA fighters are.

Nobody even comes close to Carano and she hasn't even fought since 2009. So why are people getting so worked up over Rousey simply stating what everyone is thinking?

One person who doesn't agree with Rousey is 135-lb women's champion Miesha Tate, who has become the focal point of Rousey's next fight. Rousey believes she deserves a title shot and Tate is unwilling to give it to her.

In a recent episode of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, the two girls went back and forth that produced some great sound bites from both sides.

What makes this rivalry so good is that the two have moved beyond the "looks" argument. Sure there have been jabs from Tate who believes "if Rousey wasn't pretty most people wouldn't care about what she says." (via MMAfighting.com)

But the majority of the argument from Tate is that Rousey hasn't done enough in her career (or the 135-lb division) to warrant a title shot over Sarah Kaufman or Alexis Davis.

Rousey countered Tate by implying "Strikeforce only cares about big money fights and the fight between Rousey and Tate is the big money fight for Strikeforce." (via MMAfighting.com)

Regardless of who deserves a title shot and who doesn't, make no mistake, Rousey is willing and able to become the new face of women's MMA.

She has the looks and her skills inside the cage have been very impressive since her pro debut. None of them have lasted more than one minute and all have ended via armbar.

Although her MMA career is relatively young, Rousey has earned a bronze medal in the Olympics for Judo.

Rousey has everything Carano had and more. Carano is a talented fighter, but she failed to make headlines in other ways besides her looks.

Rousey looks the part, can talk the talk and walk it as well.

If a title bout with Tate materializes, look for Rousey to begin to replace Carano on Google Trends as she will do anything and everything to get people talking about her.

And given her performances and looks, is that such a bad thing?