MEGAN Anderson is the new face of Australian fighting.
You just don?t know it yet.
Which is OK.
For given most Aussies have no idea Rob Whittaker is closing in on our first UFC title, or that Brisbane schoolteacher Jeff Horn sits within a win of Manny Pacquiao … well, what hope a Gold Coast girl now living, training, fighting out of Missouri?
Still, Anderson keeps winning anyway.
Via knockout.
This past year alone, her three consecutive MMA stoppages partnered by growing title talk and a rising cult following Stateside.
Still only 26, the heavily tattooed featherweight has also urged UFC president Dana White to add weight class alongside the two already inside his famed fight company.
And with good reason.
More than our toughest female, Anderson is gunning for the tag of ?Baddest Woman on the Planet?.
But we?ll get to that in a second.
For what really interests us is this: How do Australia?s best fighters also become our most popular?
Crazy notion, right?
But timely given this column was on Friday sent ringside to cover the professional boxing debuts of Todd Carney and Chris Sandow. That, and a Paul Gallen bout slated to last no more than six minutes.
And all before next year, when we debate the merits of Mundine/Green II.
None of which is necessarily wrong.
Or right.
It just … well, is.
For nobody can tell you, Joe Public, to start following Anderson.
Just as we cannot order you onto the stunning rise of welterweight Horn.
The unassuming Queenslander who, apart from being unbeaten in four years and 16 fights, is tonight in New Zealand looking to smash his way into a title bout by doing just that to South African Ali Funeka.
Undeniably, Horn is the best boxer in Australia.
Ranked No. 2 with both the WBO and IBF, he now sits only one strong showing from a clash with Pacman.
And still, you could argue Whittaker is better again.
Especially after the Sydney middleweight recently took his undefeated UFC run to six with a brutal first round TKO of rising American star Derek Brunson in Melbourne.
Aged 25, Whittaker is real chance of becoming our first UFC champion.
Yet given he prefers headkicks to headlines, well, a gold strap could also be what it takes for a nation to notice.
Certainly that was the case with Daniel Geale.
The softly-spoken middleweight who had to take the IBF title in Germany ? from a German ? to be seen.
Which isn?t always how it went Down Under.
No, once our greatest fighters were loved. Adored.
Lionel Rose met by some 100,000 screaming fans when ? in an upset not dissimilar to Geale ? he returned to Melbourne Town Hall with the bantamweight title of Fighting Harada.
Yet somewhere along the way, you lost faith.
Too many belts. Even more lies.
Easier to walk away than listen through another Mundine presser.
Still, we?re telling you the stories of Anderson, Whittaker and Horn anyway.
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For if a fighter is to earn your eyeballs, they must first make you feel.
Love, loathing, whatever; it doesn?t matter.
But they have to make you buy in.
Which is why you should know that only this time last year, Anderson jetted off for Invicta FC ? an American fight company devoted solely to females ? and stayed.
Driven by nothing but belief, she traded her return ticket for board, gym fees and the chance to rise in unison with a women?s fight movement that, only last year, attracted 56,000 to a Rousey card in Melbourne.
Indeed, thanks to the undeniable rise and rise of female MMA, Anderson now sits just behind Whittaker and Horn as our ?Next Big Thing?. That, and an impending showdown with Cyborg.
For while Rowdy Ronda Rousey undoubtedly put female fighting on the map, the tag of Baddest Woman on the Planet belongs to Cristiane Justino. Anderson believes she can defeat ?Cyborg?.
Aka Cyborg.
An unbreakable Brazilian who fights one weight class above the American, once sat out a year for steroid use and has not suffered defeat in a decade.
Nor though, has she come close to the Rousey megafight everyone craves.
Which is why Cyborg has now taken to calling out Anderson.
And the Aussie, she wants in.
Convinced that despite only debuting in 2013, and lining up for only her tenth stoush in the New Year against Canadian Charmaine Tweet, she can win.
Not simply our newest fighting face, but Baddest Woman on the Planet.
Which, surely, would get your attention, right?
