Definitely Ronda. She was on every stupid mainstream show, like Ellen, etc. She was attracting more non-MMA fans than anyone else by far because she was being portrayed as some kind of trailblazer for women, I suppose.
Of course, most people HERE (the real fans) knew it was all bullshit. That she was merely a good athlete in a terribly shallow division. But she attracted a fanbase that Brock, Conor, etc would never bring in.
And with that said, thank god she is gone... along with all the annoying casuals who came with her.
Good post, but I don't entirely agree. Judging by raw numbers, Ronda was a bigger draw than GSP, but still a smaller one than Brock and certainly Conor.
In fact, I was surprised that it wasn't until her last 3 fights (Bethe Correia, Holly Holm, and Amanda Nunes) that Ronda truly pulled in the huge numbers. (900k, 1.1 million, and 1.1 million, respectively) Before that, despite all the mainstream attention, she wasn't nearly as big as people seem to recall.
Rousey vs. Zingano pulled in 590k buys. That was good for 2015 (it would be awesome nowadays, since the UFC PPV market crashed), but not mind-blowingly so.
Ronda's other two headlining PPVs, her debut against Carmouche in 2013, did 450k buys and the McMann fight in 2014 did 340k buys. Decent numbers, but no more.
Compare that to Conor and Brock, and it's certainly a step below.
But I certainly agree; I'm glad I missed the whole Rousey era, not following MMA as closely from 2010 to earlier in 2018. Her fans, from what I've seen, are as insufferable as Ronda was and is herself.
