Ronda Rousey, the most dominant female fighter in MMA, could be its most historic, too.
UFC president Dana White tells SI.com he's working on a female division of the UFC, largely because of Rousey's influence.
"It's absolutely going to happen," White said Tuesday of the women's division.
The inclusion of women in the sport's highest ranks is an about-face for White, who had long rejected the idea of a women's division, deriding the quality of fighting and the depth of competition in the female ranks.
White attributes his reversal to Rousey, 25, who has beaten each of her nine opponents -- three amateur, six professional -- with a devastating armbar in the first round. Only one opponent, wrestling specialist Miesha Tate, endured longer than one minute in the cage with the Strikeforce bantamweight title holder and 2008 bronze medalist in judo.
White says no time frame is set for the new division. Rousey's transition to UFC, White says, "could happen tomorrow, it could happen a year from now."
Rousey's manager Darin Harvey says, "Nothing is immenient. She's a Strikeforce champion not a UFC fighter. We still have three fights left for Strikeforce."
Regardless of the time frame for the women's division, White says, "The point is I'm committed to this."
Dana talked about warming up to the idea of a UFC women's division, and now he's using more definitive language to describe his interest.
Interesting that Rousey's manager says she still has 3 fights left for Strikeforce--would she even be free to sign with another promotion if the Strikeforce-Showtime-Zuffa hostage negotiation remains unresolved???
Would they risk putting her in a fight with Cyborg (in Strikeforce) if they utlimately want her to become the face of women's MMA in the UFC?
I rather see the females remain in strikeforce and just make that org strictly for them. Right now wmma is in a weird stage as all the top talent and big names are not only in different divisions but different companies. Ive never watched invicta but i admire what they are doing in trying to give wmma its own identity as its easy for it to be overlooked in sf and bellator.
Its just hard to get too much interest in it (aside from rousey) until a majority of the top girls are under the same banner whether it be zuffa invicta or bellator.
Im not a fan so I won't be watching any female fights... But I am really curious to know what kind of ratings they can pull if they had an only female card... I know they're prolly gonna try and force us into watching the women by having men on the same card so the ratings won't be that bad... But give us an all female card and I'm guessing we would see all time lows in ratings.
It makes sense if they can get Rousey, Kaufmann, Tate, McMann, Carmouche, Coenen, and maybe Cyborg into the 135lb division. That's a solid enough base to build a division around, and if the UFC puts some money behind it and does a season of TUF or something, they can easily add some solid depth. Plus, Invicta would be a great feeder system for the UFC and they could develop the other divisions as well.
And anyone who doesn't think an all female card would sell should check out the ratings for Rousey's last fight. It'll end up being the most watched Strikeforce event of the year, well ahead of the card featuring both Cormier vs Barnett and Melendez vs Thompson. And Rousey had Jacare vs Brunson as the co-main.
There's a reason Dana changed his mind about WMMA in the UFC, people want to see Rousey fight. Whether or not people want to see any of the other females is a different question.
UFC women's division 'absolutely going to happen,' White says 
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