In a little more than two years, Ronda Rousey has gone from a UFC outcast to perhaps the company’s most crucial asset.

The blonde bantamweight has starred in movies, posed in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition and become one of the feared fighters in her sport. While Rousey’s star is on the rise, some of UFC’s other big names have floundered.
Georges St. Pierre has left the sport indefinitely, Anderson Silva failed two drug tests before his recent win over Nick Diaz, and Jon Jones tested positive for cocaine before beating Daniel Cormier.

Those are the recent headlines in MMA as the undefeated Rousey sets to headline UFC 184 Saturday night in Los Angeles against Cat Zingano.

“Any athlete that brings the attention she does, it shouldn’t always be that way [where there’s so much attention], but it is because they are going to have a lot of eyes on them, the cameras are going to be rolling,” said Fox Sports analyst Kenny Florian, who fought in four weight classes during his decorated UFC career.

“So it’s important that she be a great role model and she embraces that role. She’s always going to be herself and competitive and she can get nasty, as well. It’s a part of who she is. She’s being herself. Given the current UFC environment, it’s so much more important that she does that, uphold those values and portray herself in a positive light.”

While Rousey has excelled outside the octagon, it doesn’t compare to what she’s accomplished both in Strikeforce and UFC going 10-0, winning eight of her 10 matches with the armbar submission.

“She is our most dominant champion, she just has such an advantage not only because of her world-class judo background in all the competitions she has done, but her work ethic,” Florian said.

“She isn’t someone who is content to squeeze by. She wants to do more. She wants to do 10 times more than all of her opponents. Because of that I think she just works extremely harder than anyone else out there.”

The showdown with Zingano was originally set for UFC 168 at the end of 2013, but a knee injury forced Zingano out of the bout. Then in January 2014, tragedy struck when Zingano’s husband, Mauricio, took his own life in their Colorado home.

Like Rousey, Zingano is undefeated (9-0), and she is considered by some to be Rousey’s toughest test to date.

“Cat Zingano is the woman that can match the strength of Rousey, she might even be stronger,” Florian said of the contest, which is the co-main event with Holly Holm’s anticipated UFC debut against Raquel Pennington.

“She’s certainly going to be bigger. I don’t know if she matches the athleticism, but because Ronda does her best work in the clench strength is going to be a factor, not to mention Zingano’s wrestling background. It’s an interesting clash of styles. However, I still believe Ronda Rousey is ahead of all the women out there. But it still might be her most difficult and most interesting challenge, Ronda is continuing to evolve and get better so I think that gap in skill level is still there.”