This past November, Ronda Rousey was unveiled as the cover subject of EA Sports' UFC 2 video game.
At the time, she was deemed unstoppable, sporting a 12-0 record and having spent a combined one minute and four seconds on her prior three victories. Days after landing the prestigious cover, though, Rousey was brutally knocked out by Holly Holm in Australia, suffering the first loss of her professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career.
By the next month, Conor McGregor was named as the UFC 2 cover subject alongside Rousey. He, too, was riding a hot streak and looking invincible at the time, coming off a 13-second knockout victory over Jose Aldo just two days before gracing the cover with Rousey.
However, that dominance changed in Las Vegas this past Saturday night, when Nate Diaz got McGregor to tap out to a chokehold in just the second round, handing the trash-talking fighter a bad loss.
Hmm ... see where we're going with this?
By now, gamers are all too familiar with talk of the Madden curse, in reference to players who are cover subjects of EA's football series' yearly titles, falling victim to season-ending losses — or worse — injuries.
Well, Rousey and McGregor's respective losses are now paving the way for "Curse of the UFC Cover" conspiracies. Could there be a curse for landing the UFC cover?
Granted, this is only the second installment within the UFC series, with UFC 2 slated for a March 15 release next Tuesday. That being said, there's no denying the fashion in which Rousey and McGregor were defeated.
Rousey was so confident — some would say even cocky — heading into her match with Holm that she didn't bother tapping gloves with her opponent before the bout. Once the match started, though, Holm would make Rousey pay for that disrespect, cracking her jaw before dropping Ronda with a kick and sealing the knockout victory with a few punches.
McGregror, too, walked into the Octagon feeling overly confident against Diaz, only for his opponent to land the bigger strikes en route to getting the champ to tap out to a chokehold.
So, should it be UFC 2 or UFC 0-2?
