Josh Rafferty could see several women in pro wrestling successfully move to MMA.
Ivelisse, who just got a WWE tryout, teased possibly moving over to MMA to take a fight before her Lucha Underground status was resolved. Rafferty thinks that she could make that transition well. Beyond Ivelisse, he sees a lot of room for female wrestlers to cross over.
"She'd be awesome. She's a really good pro wrestler. She had some issues with her contract, but there's a lot of females in pro wrestling that could cross over into MMA. There's some really athletic girls, super strong and talented on both sides of the camera," Rafferty said in an exclusive interview with Fightful.com's James Lynch
Where Rafferty sees the issue, is that a lot of people on the WWE main roster aren't willing to make the same gamble that one of his pupils Jack Swagger did. The process of making WWE's main roster for many is something they aren't able to just let go of.
"A lot of people don't understand, if you can get to WWE in a main roster spot, that's a big deal. For some people it takes them 10, 13 years to get that spot. Finally you're making money, achieving your dreams, reaching your goals. I haven't really talked to that many people about doing it. Unless it's a lot of money or you had a background like Jack Swagger, I'd say stay in wrestling. It's a good time to be in pro wrestling. There's been a big boom for pro wrestling the last couple of years. There's a lot of opportunities," explained Rafferty.
As far as women go, there hasn't been a heavy crossover. Sumie Sakai, Lei'D Tapa, Syuri, Jessamyn Duke, Ronda Rousey, Marina Shafir and Shayna Baszler are a few of the exceptions, with several of them competing in both UFC and WWE.
You can see Lynch's full interview with Rafferty above.
