Holly Holm’s destruction of Ronda Rousey was complete and brilliant. It was also a massive upset.
Those facts are not mutually exclusive, and neither one should be forgotten in the wake of UFC 193, in which Holm knocked out Rousey with a spectacular head kick to become only the second person to wear the UFC women’s bantamweight belt.
The reaction was quick. Biggest upset ever, is what everyone proclaimed. Hey, that’s the way it goes with our instant-oatmeal society and blah-blah.
But is there truth to the claim? Where does Holm’s win really rank among the biggest upsets in MMA history?
Being big means more than just long odds (though Holm has that; she was a +900 underdog on Odds Shark Saturday). The size of an upset also takes into account the stakes of a fight and the stature of its fighters.
Based on those three metrics, these are the 10 biggest upsets in MMA history. Odds courtesy of Odds Shark when available, and the other sites, depending on circumstances, when not.