There are always plenty of lessons following any fight card. But the learning curve is not usually as steep as it was for UFC 207.
That’s mainly because a certain fighter, name of Ronda Rousey, chose to severely limit her public interactions in the run-up to her main event with women’s bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes. No one has seen Rousey so much as spar for any significant length of time since she lost her title a year ago to Holly Holm.
Anyone who told you they knew how Rousey might look in this bout might also have some swampland in Arizona to show you.
Nunes, having only won the title five months ago and never having defended it, is far from a known quantity herself, at least in this context. The second round is a bit of a mystery, too; Nunes has only left the first twice in seven UFC contests.
In the co-main event, men’s bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz took on hard-hitting youngster Cody Garbrandt in a big-time grudge match. Cruz was so far inside Garbrandt‘s head he could see Garbrandt‘s childhood. Cruz is also one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world right now. But Garbrandt has a great equalizer: a devastating right hand that has ended nine of the fights on his 10-0 record. Could he land it clean against Cruz’s inimitable movement?
Those were only a few of the mysteries on the 10-fight card, which aired Friday from Las Vegas. We know a lot more now than we did a few hours ago, and as always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real winners and losers from UFC 207.
For the literal-minded among us, full card results appear on the final slide.