It happens, and perhaps it can be tolerated and “appreciated” by hardcore fans, but that overzealous arm bar-to-a-90-degree-hyperextension executed by Ronda Rousey on Miesha Tate’s upper limb will cast more shadow on MMA’s drive to mainstream acceptance (whatever and wherever that is).
Inside just one round in the Strikeforce main event earlier tonight, the two women fighters showed that their fighting skills are truly as beautiful as they way they look. It should be no surprise, though, that as MMA is the world’s most comprehensive legitimate combat sport, things could end up ugly.
And it did, with the manner that Rousey successfully captured Tate’s arm and Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Title.
Now here’s a passage on the protocol of the tap out, focusing on the arm bar, from an article I wrote last year:
In striking you really have to hit with maximum power to make it most effective, to come closest to knocking out your opponent, to beating an eye shut.
In grappling, it’s more deliberate: if all arm bar attempts are executed properly and explosively to the full range of motion, believe me, they will all result into broken arms.
That’s why we have the protocol of the tap.
And there have been instances when the attacking fighter catches an arm, and, sensing he’s on the brink of hyperextending it without the defensive fighter tapping out, instinctively looks up at the referee in anticipation of a stoppage.
Well, Tate was tapping out, albeit reluctantly, with only 24 seconds remaining in the first round.
Was a submission expressed by tap out not enough for Rousey? Was it really her game plan to go for broke, as in broken arm?
Or was it just the heat of the moment, especially when she got frustrated by her first arm bar attempt—which almost sank?
Maybe it was “just” the submission she was really after, but it still reached breaking point just the same, the adrenaline rush rendering her insentient to her opponent’s desperate taps.
Tate is Rousey’s second consecutive injured victim who ended up suffering a broken arm via arm bar. In her previous fight in Strikeforce, she also dealt the same finishing hold and disability to Julia Budd.
Still, it’s premature to judge Rousey’s true intent on Tate. No one can adjudicate conclusively if there was malicious intent in inflicting damage, that’s more than necessary to win, on Rousey’s part—unless she confesses.
In spite of all the “meanness” articulated during the two women fighters’ pre-fight trash talk, we can just dismiss the apparent ill will as all hype to generate interest in the just concluded championship match. (And it succeeded.)
Just the same, the sight of that vicious arm bar on the hyperextended limb will definitely have negative repercussions, based on the perception of the casual fans and the rest of the viewing public who may be relatively new to MMA. And the latter, in other words, are among those who make up the rest of the mainstream audience.
The sight of that arm will linger long in memory and become immortalized in various Internet sites on MMA. Its consequences will be more palpable in the days, weeks, and even years to come.
That championship win by ghastly broken arm could be a Pyrrhic victory for Rousey and for all of MMA—across both genders—after all.
Disclaimer: The primary photo is not of Miesha Tate’s postfight arm; it’s for illustrative purposes only.
The writer is an experienced grappler and former Philippine professional MMA competitor who has won in national and Asian-level grappling competitions. In the 2010 Philippine International No Gi Open he had the privilege of facing Jon Tuck, who later became Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Cup 2010 gold medalist and now The Ultimate Fighter 15 cast member.
Jon Tuck won their match in the Advanced-Pesado division and eventually bagged the gold medal in the Philippine international grappling tournament; the writer settled for bronze.
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