SI’s Jon Wertheim in this week's cover story writes UFC fighter Ronda Rousey has “given life to a sport in need of reinvigoration.” UFC President Dana White “readily admits that there is no more valuable fighter in the organization.” Former UFC fighter Julie Kedzie said, “She’s the reason (women) are in the UFC. But if we’re being honest, she’s elevated the whole sport” (SI, 5/18 issue). The GLOBE & MAIL’s Cathal Kelly wrote, “Rousey hasn’t just elevated her sport. She may have saved it. She’s a throwback to a much earlier era. She likes to fight and she likes to talk. As good as she is at the former, she might be even better at the latter” (GLOBE & MAIL, 5/16).
CLASS OF HIS OWN: USA TODAY’s Luke Kerr-Dineen wrote golf fans in recent weeks have told themselves that Rory McIlroy "isn’t alone at the top; that Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler are in the midst of a coup; that the next generation of golf is shaping-up to be a diverse free-for-all, with multiple parties jockeying for the same throne.” Except “it’s not happening that way.” McIlroy, who won the Wells Fargo Championship yesterday by seven strokes, “has won the same number of PGA Tour events this month” as Fowler has in his career. Spieth and Fowler are “both fantastic players, and you’d be hard-pressed to find golfers with better records by their age.” But to call them McIlroy’s rivals “simply isn’t in tune with reality” (USATODAY.com, 5/17).
FIGHT CLUB: In Miami, Santos Perez asked whether the appearances of boxers Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin on consecutive Saturdays “indicate that boxing is ready to unveil its new top-tier attractions and move past” the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao era. Both Alvarez and Golovkin “solidified their stock with impressive knockout victories.” They could be the sport’s “new wave of must-see fighters” as both “have qualities to fill the void” (MIAMI HERALD, 5/17).
