In a tremendous main event to Saturday night’s Strikeforce card, a new women’s champion has been crowned: Ronda Rousey has submitted Miesha Tate with a first-round arm bar.
Rousey is now 5-0, with all five wins by first-round arm bar. But this was a much tougher fight than her previous four. None of the previous fights lasted even 50 seconds, but this one was a back-and-forth battle that lasted most of the first round. In the end, Tate didn’t want to tap out, and she appeared to have an injured arm for her trouble.
“She was much more savvy on the ground than I anticipated,” Rousey said of Tate. “She’s good, she’s legit, but I don’t feel that bad about it.”
It was a great fight: Tate charged in swinging but Rousey grabbed hold of her and did exactly what she wanted to do, using her world-class judo to throw Tate to the ground. Rousey then went for an arm bar, and it appeared that she would win this fight the way she had won all of her previous fights, with an arm bar in the first minute.
But Tate fought it off and not only escaped but wound up in an advantageous position, taking Rousey’s back. Rousey fought that off and got back to her feet, and after a brief exchange of punches standing Rousey used a judo throw to get on top of Tate on the ground.
From there it was only a matter of time before Rousey got what she wanted, an opportunity to sink in an arm bar. Tate desperately wanted to survive and at first refused to tap, but eventually her arm bent in an ugly way, and Tate did tap. She stayed on the ground for several minutes as Rousey celebrated in the cage.