If you stayed up late or woke up early for Rizin Fighting Federation’s second event, you got treated to the best worst fight of 2015.
Noted Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Gabi Garcia (1-0) made her long-awaited MMA debut against professional wrestler Lei’D Tapa (0-1). And it was glorious.
Tapa nearly stunned the MMA world when she leveled Garcia early in the fight.
Garcia survived and continued. They got into another exchange, and Tapa thought she was out of danger. But Garcia is huge. Her massive wingspan allowed her to flail her right hand backward and connect flush, dropping Tapa. Garcia pounced and finished with hammerfists.
What a glorious mess of a fight.
To be fair, both women were making their MMA debuts without any prior striking experience. To expect high levels of striking would have been naive, but the resulting mess gave fans plenty of entertainment.
And Twitter enjoyed it quite a bit:
There is no division for these two women. There just isn’t enough talent in the world for women at this weight, but it was an entertaining sideshow for Rizin’s second event. And there will remain interest in Garcia’s MMA career. There is no one like her in this sport.
Rizin is the perfect promotion for Garcia. Japan loves these types of fights, and Rizin will be able to pay willing participants to stand opposite the ring from her. Tapa showed that Garcia is vulnerable, and that will add a bit more intrigue to Garcia’s next fight in terms of whether she has improved or will get dropped again.
The Brazilian wasn’t able to dominate this fight like many people, myself included, expected.
When MMA technique is this poor, it usually results in more entertainment than some mid-level fights, and that is exactly what we saw out of Garcia vs. Tapa. Technique was null and void. Garcia’s Sound of Music backfist, however, will be a memorable moment from the best worst fight of 2015.
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