For four rounds Holly Holm was as good as one could have expected her to be at UFC 196. She was elusive, unpredictable with her strikes and she did an excellent job of keeping her opponent, the steely wrestler Miesha Tate, off-balance throughout the fight.
In 23 minutes of fighting, she made just one mistake. Unfortunately, that is all it takes to lose a fight in MMA.
The first four rounds were vintage Holm. A lifelong boxer, her flawless footwork kept her untouchable at range. Anytime Tate moved in, a darting left hand followed by a smooth juke awaited her. Anytime Holm wanted to score some points on offense, she landed a hard jab or a sneaky body kick and suffered no repercussions.
That isn’t to say Holm completely dominated. The second round saw Tate turn an early takedown into over four minutes of heavy top control, nearly finishing the fight with a rear-naked choke. With the exception of that hiccup—and it was an admittedly big hiccup—this was a brilliant performance from Holm.
Then came the fifth. It started out well for the Preacher’s Daughter. She peppered Tate with leg kicks, tagged her with punches and kept her at a comfortable distance for more than half the round.
Out of nowhere, Tate perfectly timed a takedown attempt and scrambled her way to Holm‘s back. Cupcake immediately worked for a rear-naked choke and held on to it while Holm muscled her way back to her feet. Holm tried to somersault out of trouble but Tate, showing off her often-underrated athleticism, managed to stay locked on Holm‘s neck.
An emotional @MieshaTate talks about sinking in a late 5th round choke to win the @UFC women’s BW title #UFC196 https://t.co/kgQGh9zBTi
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) March 6, 2016
Holm would go limp, Tate would jump to her feet and Dana White would belt her up as the new UFC women’s bantamweight champion.
So what the heck happened, you ask? How could Holm, a heavy favorite over Tate, have lost this?
Well, it’s worth starting that discussion with a reality check on Holm as a fighter. As Bleacher Report’s own Jonathan Snowden spelled out last week, Holm was exalted almost exclusively due to her UFC 193 win over Ronda Rousey, and the mythos around her ignored the ho-hum performances she had before winning the belt:
Ronda Rousey was supposed to be unbeatable…Instead of Rousey‘s downfall teaching us all a useful lesson about every fighter’s fallibility, all of Rousey‘s hyperbole and well-established bona fides have been bestowed upon Holm as if by osmosis. Holm, in the popular imagination, is now the unstoppable juggernaut Rousey once was.
Holm is very good but it’s worth remembering she was still boxing less than three years ago. It shouldn’t be all that surprising, then, that she made key tactical errors when it came to that final grappling exchange with Tate.
If one goes back and looks at how Holm defended that fight-ending rear-naked choke, they’ll notice a pattern.
When Tate first took Holm‘s back, the now-former champ tried to shove her way into top position. From there, she dragged Tate along the canvas, worked her way to the corner and then powered her way back to her feet. With Tate still stuck on her back, she tried to escape by rolling forward, which only sunk the choke in deeper.
At every single step of the way, Holm tried to explode her way out of the situation when a more passive approach would have served her better. Holm could have tried to roll onto her back to defend from underneath. She could have attacked Tate’s hands to stave off the choke. She could have done any number of things to simply chew up 90 more seconds and bring the fight to the judges.
Alas, Holm‘s relative lack of grappling experience proved to be the difference. Tate found a small window of opportunity and made the most of it.
All that said, don’t mistake this for the end of Holm‘s time at the top of the division. Outside of this one unfortunate sequence, Holm put on an excellent performance. She arguably remains the best 135-pound woman in the world despite the loss and would likely still be favored over Tate in a rematch.
Holm‘s loss here is just another reminder that nobody is unbeatable, especially in the still-growing field of women’s MMA.
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