Three days removed from UFC 178, it feels as though Cat Zingano’s come-from-behind win over Amanda Nunes has been overshadowed by arguably bigger news.
Maybe that’s to be expected. Very few MMA stories these days can stand up to the media hurricane that is Conor McGregor. Not many more have been able to hold a candle to Yoel Romero, Tim Kennedy and their unfortunately named “Stool Gate” controversy. To the extent any breathing room at all was left on the fringes, it was gobbled up by the disappointing Octagon debut of Eddie Alvarez.
But the truth is, Saturday night’s stellar pay-per-view broadcast never topped Zingano’s comeback victory for sheer, raw emotion. The fact later in the night Dana White confirmed her—not Gina Carano—as the next fighter to vie for Ronda Rousey’s 135-pound title at UFC 182 should go down as one of the best feel-good moments of the year.
During the last 18 months, Zingano’s story has been so searing that it’s hard to even talk about it without feeling some way exploitative. The 32-year-old Colorado native blew out her knee last May and conceded a potentially star-making coaching gig opposite Rousey on Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter to Miesha Tate.
Tate went on to establish herself as Rousey’s chief rival and the UFC’s second-most-famous female fighter. Zingano faded into the background.
In January, Zingano’s husband and coach committed suicide, leaving her to raise their son and segue back into her professional career amid what must’ve been unspeakable personal anguish. That she made it back to the cage at all was remarkable. The fact she’s retaken her position as No. 1 contender to Rousey’s championship is fairly extraordinary.
Her return was not without uneasy moments. Nunes knocked Zingano off her game with an inside leg kick in the opening seconds of their bout and then pounded her on the ground for much of the first round. It appeared for a couple of fleeting moments that Nunes might force a stoppage, but Zingano hung on and even battled her way on top by the end of the stanza.
The second and third rounds were all hers. Zingano punished Nunes with a pretty standing elbow in the early going and mixed in some swift takedowns—including a beautiful upper-body throw to match the one she delivered late in the first. She looked dominant from top position, threating with submission attempts while feeding Nunes a steady diet of punches and elbows.
When she finally pounded the 26-year-old Brazilian out 1:21 into the third, the emotions that crossed Zingano’s face were hard to fully process. She was relieved, certainly, and happy, but her pain was obvious, too. Her interview in the cage with UFC color commentator Joe Rogan after the fight was straightforward and at times funny, but the edge in her voice was unmistakable. She won’t be the same after the events of the last year-and-a-half, but watching her elation at reclaiming her spot as No. 1 contender reminded many of us why this sport affects us so deeply.
Against all odds, the UFC handled it all with uncharacteristic grace. The fight company hasn’t always been flawless in its discussions of female fighters. That relationship will no doubt continue to be a work in progress. But the organization played it fairly straight during Zingano-Nunes, treating them merely as two athletes chasing a championship opportunity.
Perhaps even better, it finally got White to concede he might stop talking about Carano.
“This was the shut-up-about-Gina-Carano fight,” the UFC president noted during the UFC 178 post-fight press conference. “I think that’s the statement Cat wanted to make tonight, and she made it loud and clear.”
As usual, White’s words can be interpreted a couple of different ways.
Perhaps Zingano was just that impressive in marshaling her wits and battering Nunes en route to victory in the third. But news was already out that Carano was off the table for the foreseeable future, and White had already pulled an about-face on the former Strikeforce champ, suddenly referring to her as “the hardest human being we’ve ever dealt with,” via Fox Sports’ Damon Martin.
For that reason, “shutting up” about Carano seemed like the UFC’s best option—a tactical play in the midst of an otherwise very personal and poignant story.
But even if Zingano vs. Rousey is a marriage of convenience for the fight company, it doesn’t undermine Zingano’s fitness as the division’s longtime top contender. It was always Cat Zingano. It was always Zingano vs. Rousey at UFC 182. In the end, all the talk about Carano amounted to little more than noise.
Now, after 18 painful months, at least the UFC women’s bantamweight division is once against exactly as it should be.
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