Ronda Rousey was a massive influence on many taking the path of becoming an MMA fighter, with an unbeaten PFL fighter describing the multiple points of influence ‘Rowdy’ had on her. The fighter in question is Sara Collins who battles Cris Cyborg for the latter’s featherweight championship in the co-main event of PFL Europe 4 on December 13th.
The Australian combatant was actually in attendance at the famous UFC 193 card, an event where Holly Holm had a big upset win over Ronda Rousey in the land down under. When asked for her recollections of being there for such a massive moment in MMA history, Collins said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Well, the stadium was so big, you could hardly see anything from where we were sitting [laughs]. But I was a massive fan of Ronda, so I was very sad that day when she lost. But happy for Daniel [Kelly] because he won that day, so it was all right.”
Ronda Rousey met Sara Collins and “was super lovely”
Her long-time coach ‘Judo’ Dan Kelly secured a win over Steve Montgomery on that same card which was referenced in Collins’ comments above. When asked if she was already in the fold training with Kelly a fair bit around that time period a decade ago, Collins stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, I think it was for that fight I helped him with his weight cut and was starting. That was when I kind of started to get into MMA. So I was still doing a bit of judo but slowly transitioning to MMA at that point.”
To tie it back to Ronda Rousey, the then-UFC bantamweight champion worked out of the gym that Kelly and Collins were at a bit in the leadup to that UFC 193 fight. When asked if she had any cursory interactions with her in the training room at all, Collins quipped [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, she gave me a t-shirt when I saw her in the gym. She was super lovely.”