Tag: Recap

Fight Night 35 Salaries: Luke Rockhold, Cole Miller (?!) Top a Half Million Dollar Payroll


(Now that Cole is financially better off, maybe he can afford to stop stealing his fight trunks from Cody McKenzie’s dresser. Photo via Getty.)

About midway through the Fight Night 35 main card, I headed to a local bar with some friends for trivia night, my intention being to halfheartedly watch the card to completion whilst shoveling down pull pork nachos and trying to figure out who the 14th President of the United States was without using the smartphone I don’t even have.

Amidst a crowd of heavily inebriated Bostonians, I attempted to get the bartender to change one of the 15 plasma screen televisions surrounding me to FOX Sports 1. She changed it to FOX, at the exact moment American Idol was starting, which drew some strange reactions from the bar patrons that in turn forced me to hang my head in shame until she made it back around. When she finally did, and after a brief back and forth about what FS1 exactly was, she informed me that “we don’t play fights here” before switching to CNN.

This intolerance left me cold inside, colder than any amount of nachos could ever hope to warm. But I tried, dammit. I really tried…

What does any of this have to do with the Fight Night 35 salaries? Nothing, I guess. I just thought it would interest you to know that MMA bias is still alive and rampant, even in some of the sport’s most gung-ho cities. Join us after the jump to see the saddening result of this intolerance.


(Now that Cole is financially better off, maybe he can afford to stop stealing his fight trunks from Cody McKenzie’s dresser. Photo via Getty.)

About midway through the Fight Night 35 main card, I headed to a local bar with some friends for trivia night, my intention being to halfheartedly watch the card to completion whilst shoveling down pull pork nachos and trying to figure out who the 14th President of the United States was without using the smartphone I don’t even have.

Amidst a crowd of heavily inebriated Bostonians, I attempted to get the bartender to change one of the 15 plasma screen televisions surrounding me to FOX Sports 1. She changed it to FOX, at the exact moment American Idol was starting, which drew some strange reactions from the bar patrons that in turn forced me to hang my head in shame until she made it back around. When she finally did, and after a brief back and forth about what FS1 exactly was, she informed me that “we don’t play fights here” before switching to CNN.

This intolerance left me cold inside, colder than any amount of nachos could ever hope to warm. But I tried, dammit. I really tried…

What does any of this have to do with the Fight Night 35 salaries? Nothing, I guess. I just thought it would interest you to know that MMA bias is still alive and rampant, even in some of the sport’s most gung-ho cities. Join us after the jump to see the saddening result of this intolerance.

Luke Rockhold: $80,000 (includes $40,000 win bonus)
def. Constantinos Philippou: $23,000

Brad Tavares: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
def. Lorenz Larkin: $26,000

T.J. Dillashaw: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
def. Mike Easton: $14,000

Yoel Romero: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
def. Derek Brunson: $19,000

John Moraga: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Dustin Ortiz: $10,000

Cole Miller: $56,000 (includes $28,000 win bonus)
def. Sam Sicilia: $10,000

Ramsey Nijem: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
def. Justin Edwards: $10,000

Elias Silverio: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Isaac Vallie-Flagg: $12,000

Trevor Smith: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Houston: $8,000

Louis Smolka: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Alptekin Ozkilic: $10,000

Vinc Pichel: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Garett Whiteley: $8,000

Beneil Dariush: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Charlie Brenneman: $10,000

Nothing too surprising here, although given their respective octagon records, it shocks me to learn that Costa Philippou makes less to show than Cole Miller. He may have lost his last two fights, but for a guy who was in talks of title convention prior to his recent skid, he sure ain’t making that much to show for it. Same goes for the Derek Brunson/John Moraga discrepancy. Guess it pays to eat your Wheaties, kids.

But seriously, the bartender might as well have told me that MMA fans are a bunch of psychopathic miscreants who hold no place in decent, basketball-watching, beer-chugging society. She said it with her eyes, anyways.

–J. Jones

UFC Fight Night 35 Aftermath: Rockhold TKO’s Philippou With Body-Kick, Dana White Returns Fire on GSP at Post-Fight Press Conference

(Props: FOX Sports)

Erasing the bitter memory of his unsuccessful Octagon debut, Luke Rockhold began building his own UFC highlight-reel last night at UFC Fight Night 35 with a first-round body-kick TKO of Costa Philippou. Rockhold picked up a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for the effort. At the post-fight press conference, Rockhold did what every surging middleweight does after a big win — he called out Michael Bisping:

“I’m looking at anyone in the middleweight division to get myself back into (title) position,” Rockhold said. “I already let it be known Bisping’s out there. A lot of people are calling him out, but Bisping went on national TV and told everybody he was the unofficial Strikeforce champion. He calls it a joke and this and that, but I say he’s got bad taste and he needs to pay for it.”

In other bonus news, featherweight Cole Miller won Submission of the Night for his second-round rear-naked choke of Sam Sicilia — which Miller followed up by calling out Donald “Clownboy” Cerrone in the post-fight interview — while middleweights Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson both got $50,000 bumps for FOTN. Highlights from both those matches are embedded at the end of this post.

Romero — who earned his third-consecutive KO/TKO win in the UFC by stopping Brunson with savage ground-and-pound in the third round — claims to have not pooped his pants during the match, despite damning Vine evidence to the contrary. However, Romero can’t deny the dick-punch he landed on Brunson. That was ugly, bro.

In injury news…


(Props: FOX Sports)

Erasing the bitter memory of his unsuccessful Octagon debut, Luke Rockhold began building his own UFC highlight-reel last night at UFC Fight Night 35 with a first-round body-kick TKO of Costa Philippou. Rockhold picked up a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for the effort. At the post-fight press conference, Rockhold did what every surging middleweight does after a big win — he called out Michael Bisping:

“I’m looking at anyone in the middleweight division to get myself back into (title) position,” Rockhold said. “I already let it be known Bisping’s out there. A lot of people are calling him out, but Bisping went on national TV and told everybody he was the unofficial Strikeforce champion. He calls it a joke and this and that, but I say he’s got bad taste and he needs to pay for it.”

In other bonus news, featherweight Cole Miller won Submission of the Night for his second-round rear-naked choke of Sam Sicilia — which Miller followed up by calling out Donald “Clownboy” Cerrone in the post-fight interview — while middleweights Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson both got $50,000 bumps for FOTN. Highlights from both those matches are embedded at the end of this post.

Romero — who earned his third-consecutive KO/TKO win in the UFC by stopping Brunson with savage ground-and-pound in the third round — claims to have not pooped his pants during the match, despite damning Vine evidence to the contrary. However, Romero can’t deny the dick-punch he landed on Brunson. That was ugly, bro.

In injury news, Derek Brunson was taken to a hospital after the event to reportedly have surgery on a fractured jaw. (I’m surprised he didn’t have a bunch of broken ribs as well, thanks to all those elbows that Romero dropped on him in the finish. By the way, was that a late stoppage or what? Referee Blake Grice should have to chip in for Brunson’s medical bills.) Also, Cole Miller broke his hand and will find out today if he needs surgery.

Despite a losing effort against Elias Silverio, Isaac Vallie-Flagg scored a moral victory during the prelims with this tale-of-the-tape photo:

In semi-related news, Dana White took some time at the “Rockhold vs. Philippou” post-fight press conference to respond to Georges St-Pierre’s recent criticism of the UFC’s drug-testing policies. Unsurprisingly, White called St-Pierre “kooky” and questioned his manhood. Some notable quotes via MMAMania:

“First of all, I don’t know if anybody remembers this but Georges St. Pierre is the one who said that he wanted to do the extra drug testing because he wanted to prove that he wasn’t on drugs. It wasn’t that he thought that Johny Hendricks was on steroids or performance enhancing drugs of any kind; he wanted to do this…[Y]ou see it in boxing all the time. One guy comes out and says ‘I want to do extra drug testing because I’m worried about this guy and I want to see what’s going on.’ They never come to an agreement. This guy says ‘I want to use this one’, this guy says ‘I want to use that one’; the Nevada State Athletic Commission is going to test them, okay?

“Now, a lot of things… I’ve talked about the Nevada State Athletic Commission as far as the refs and the judges; they drug test. Not only did they drug test Josh Barnett for his last fight because Josh Barnett has been busted for performance enhancing drugs before, they also made Travis Browne do it at the same time and the UFC paid for that. We paid for that drug testing. Also, for him to say we’re very lenient on drug testing, when we go out of the country and we regulate ourselves we test everybody on the card, not just the main event, not just the co-main event. You want to talk about being lenient? The fight that I was screaming about, yelling about that it was the greatest fight I’ve ever seen, Mark Hunt vs. Bigfoot Silva, we tested the guys for that fight, we caught Bigfoot Silva, and he got destroyed. Literally, got destroyed for going over the limit.

“He didn’t test positive, what he did was: Vitor Belfort, Bigfoot Silva, any of these other guys that are on TRT we test them throughout their whole camp. He did his last test the week of the fight and his numbers were fine. He took a shot after he got tested. So we tested him again after and his levels were through the roof and he got destroyed. Lost the win money that we gave him, lost the bonus money that we gave him, and obviously he’s not getting an extra bonus. The guy got smashed, and he’s suspended for a year. So if that’s lenient on drugs I guess we’re lenient then. I mean, I don’t even know what to say to it…

“What I heard is Georges St. Pierre is upset about some of the things I said at the press conference and he’s upset that I said that he didn’t win the fight, that I thought Johny Hendricks won the fight. But if that’s the case, call me man-to-man. Let’s talk on the phone, let’s sit down face-to-face. I talked to him after the fight face-to-face (and) he didn’t say any of that to me. So the whole thing is a little weird…

“And then as far as the other thing he said that we’re a monopoly? Viacom is our competitor. They have a $40 billion market cap. $40 billion. I’m never going to see $40 billion for as long as I live. Neither will the UFC, so we’re not a monopoly either.

“So, everything Georges St. Pierre says is a little kooky. That’s the other thing too: I’m here, I’ve been in Atlanta, I’ve been on planes, and doing all this stuff. Lorenzo reached out to him and Lorenzo still hasn’t heard from him yet. If Georges St. Pierre wants to talk like a man he can pick up the phone and call us or come see us face-to-face, but everything that he said is ridiculous.”

Full results from UFC Fight Night 35 are below; click the links for video highlights from each fight.

UFC Fight Night 35 Main Card Results
– Luke Rockhold def. Costa Philippou via TKO, 2:31 of round 1
– Brad Tavares def. Lorez Larkin via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
– TJ Dillashaw def. Mike Easton via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Yoel Romero def. Derek Brunson via TKO, 3:23 of round 3
– John Moraga def. Dustin Ortiz via split-decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29)
– Cole Miller def. Sam Sicilia via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:54 of round 2

Preliminary Card Results:
– Ramsey Nijem def. Justin Edwards via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x 2)
– Elias Silverio def. Isaac Vallie-Flagg via unanimous decision (29-27 x 3)*
– Trevor Smith def. Brian Houston via split-decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29)
– Louis Smolka def. Alptekin Ozkilic via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
– Vinc Pichel def. Garett Whiteley via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Beneil Dariush def. Charlie Brenneman via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:45 of round 1

* Silverio had a point deducted for an illegal knee.

TUF Nations Episode 1 Results and Recap: Which Nation Drew First Blood?

Is this thing on?  The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia debuted Wednesday evening, giving the world its first glimpse of the latest cast of UFC hopefuls to display their talents on the hit reality television show.  But nobody cared.  Twitter was dead, the show itself was low-key and reserved compared to past seasons, and, to […]

Is this thing on?  The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia debuted Wednesday evening, giving the world its first glimpse of the latest cast of UFC hopefuls to display their talents on the hit reality television show.  But nobody cared.  Twitter was dead, the show itself was low-key and reserved compared to past seasons, and, to […]

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You Might Want to Stay Away from the UFC Fight Pass for a While (Oh Yeah, the UFC Had a Card This Morning Too)


(The UFC, where tapping out doesn’t matter, like the points in “Whose Line is It Anyway?” / Photo Via Getty)

Like communism, the UFC Fight Pass sounds amazing on paper.

For $10/month, not only do you get to see a bunch of overseas cards not aired in the United States, you get access to the UFC’s entire video library—which includes fights from the WEC and Pride, as well as episodes from TUF.

It wouldn’t have been a bad deal if the UFC’s execution hadn’t been lacking in all departments.

FightOpinion, a firebrand MMA website that has recently earned the ire of Dana White, extensively covered the UFC Fight Pass, and not the fluff coverage the paid for media often provides for anything Zuffa-owned. If you want the dirt on the UFC Fight Pass, FightOpinion has the shovel. They ran three articles on the star-crossed streaming service. You should read each one.

Here’s what they concluded:

-The UFC Fight Pass isn’t worth the money, especially when you consider that you have to pay for 13 PPVs throughout the year as well. It costs over $700 a year to be a UFC fan.

-The UFC Fight Pass doesn’t even work from a promotional point of view; the pay wall ensures that the fighters who need exposure most won’t get it.

-The UFC Fight Pass pales in comparison to the WWE’s digital network, a sentiment we share.

-The UFC Fight Pass is lacking a plethora of features that are standard issue on other digital streaming networks (i.e. Netflix, Hulu, etc). It’s also in dire need of polish. An example they give is that searching for “UFC 1” will give you every single event starting with “UFC” and “1”, so you’ll get UFC 1, 10, 11…100, 101, etc.)

-The legalese in the UFC Fight Pass’ terms of use agreement is binding and horrific (although this isn’t unique to the UFC).

But FightOpinion wasn’t the only MMA Media outlet to have doubts about the UFC Fight Pass. MMA Mania’s Matt Roth went on a twitter rant against the service. Even worse, he says that the UFC charged him for watching fights on the Fight Pass—fights that your monthly $10 is purportedly granting you access to.

It’s clear that the Fight Pass is a half-finished cash grab that’s held together by duct tape. If you buy it in its current, faulty incarnation, you’re either a mark for the UFC or an MMA media member (though there’s a lot of crossover here). Stay away from the fight pass for a while longer. It’s not ready for public consumption.

However, that didn’t stop the UFC from airing its first card on the UFC Fight Pass: UFC Fight Night 34, an event that was held in Singapore this morning.

For the most part, there wasn’t a whole lot of game-changing stuff to happen on this event. We’ll give you a quick rundown with some GIFs (all courtesy of @ZProphet_MMA) and then the complete results:


(The UFC, where tapping out doesn’t matter, like the points in “Whose Line is It Anyway?” / Photo Via Getty)

Like communism, the UFC Fight Pass sounds amazing on paper.

For $10/month, not only do you get to see a bunch of overseas cards not aired in the United States, you get access to the UFC’s entire video library—which includes fights from the WEC and Pride, as well as episodes from TUF.

It wouldn’t have been a bad deal if the UFC’s execution hadn’t been lacking in all departments.

FightOpinion, a firebrand MMA website that has recently earned the ire of Dana White, extensively covered the UFC Fight Pass, and not the fluff coverage the paid for media often provides for anything Zuffa-owned. If you want the dirt on the UFC Fight Pass, FightOpinion has the shovel. They ran three articles on the star-crossed streaming service. You should read each one.

Here’s what they concluded:

-The UFC Fight Pass isn’t worth the money, especially when you consider that you have to pay for 13 PPVs throughout the year as well. It costs over $700 a year to be a UFC fan.

-The UFC Fight Pass doesn’t even work from a promotional point of view; the pay wall ensures that the fighters who need exposure most won’t get it.

-The UFC Fight Pass pales in comparison to the WWE’s digital network, a sentiment we share.

-The UFC Fight Pass is lacking a plethora of features that are standard issue on other digital streaming networks (i.e. Netflix, Hulu, etc). It’s also in dire need of polish. An example they give is that searching for “UFC 1″ will give you every single event starting with “UFC” and “1″, so you’ll get UFC 1, 10, 11…100, 101, etc.)

-The legalese in the UFC Fight Pass’ terms of use agreement is binding and horrific (although this isn’t unique to the UFC).

But FightOpinion wasn’t the only MMA Media outlet to have doubts about the UFC Fight Pass. MMA Mania’s Matt Roth went on a twitter rant against the service. Even worse, he says that the UFC charged him for watching fights on the Fight Pass—fights that your monthly $10 is purportedly granting you access to.

It’s clear that the Fight Pass is a half-finished cash grab that’s held together by duct tape. If you buy it in its current, faulty incarnation, you’re either a mark for the UFC or an MMA media member (though there’s a lot of crossover here). Stay away from the fight pass for a while longer. It’s not ready for public consumption.

However, that didn’t stop the UFC from airing its first card on the UFC Fight Pass: UFC Fight Night 34, an event that was held in Singapore this morning.

For the most part, there wasn’t a whole lot of game-changing stuff to happen on this event. We’ll give you a quick rundown with some GIFs (all courtesy of @ZProphet_MMA) and then the complete results:

22-year-old kickboxing ace Max Holloway, who recently suffered a loss to Conor McGregor, returned to the winning column on the prelims.

On the main card, Luiz Dutra received a DQ loss for illegal 12-6 elbows to the back of the head. More notably, he started crying afterwards. I wonder what Jimmy Dugan would have to say about that…

In the co-main event, famed Japanese fighter Tatsuya Kawajiri made a successful UFC debut, submitting Sean Soriano via rear naked choke in the second round—a submission where the referee literally missed the frantic tapout while he was standing right in front of the fighters.

The main event featured a fight between Tarec Saffiedine and Hyun Gyu Lim. By all accounts the fight was entertaining, but Saffiedine was clearly the better fighter. He made use of his signature leg kicks throughout the fight to cripple Lim, stymieing the Korean’s offensive efforts. Saffiedine walked away with a unanimous decision victory.

Here are the complete results:

Main Card

Tarec Saffiedine def. Hyun Gyu Lim via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47)
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Sean Soriano via technical submission (rear naked choke), 0:50 of Round 2
Kiichi Kunimoto def. Luiz Dutra via DQ (illegal elbows), 2:57 of Round 1
Kyung-Ho Kang def. Shunichi Shimizu via submission (arm triangle), 3:53 of Round 3

Preliminary Card

Max Holloway def. Will Chope via TKO (punches), 2:27 of Round 2
Katsunori Kikuno def. Quinn Mulhern via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Royston Wee def. Dave Galera via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
Mairbek Taisumov def. Tae Hyun Bang via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Dustin Kimura def. Jon Delos Reyes via submission (armbar), 2:13 of Round 1
Russell Doane def. Leandro Issa via technical submission (triangle), 4:59 of Round 2

UFC 168 Salaries: Silva Banks 600K Severance Package, Rousey Breaks Six Figures


(And he couldn’t be happier, ladies and gentleman! Author’s note: I am so going to hell. Photo via r/MMA)

It might seem disrespectful to discuss something as frivolous as money in these post-Silva-leg-break times, but the salaries for UFC 168 were released earlier today and it is our civic duty to inform you who made out like a bandit and who will be ringing in the New Year with a feast of Ramen noodles and cut up hot dogs (a.k.a “The Danga Delight”).

You’ll be pleased to know that despite shattering his leg to fuck on Saturday, Anderson Silva still made enough money to purchase a nice little villa in the Poconos and enjoy his (probable) retirement. It probably wasn’t the severance package he had in mind, but such is life in the fight game. Meanwhile, Corey Hill is still toiling away in obscurity and predicting when it will rain three days in advance.

The full list of disclosed salaries are after the jump. Per usual, they are absent of any “Of the Night” bonuses, training fees, etc.

Chris Weidman: $400,000 (includes $200,000 win bonus)
def. Anderson Silva: $600,000

Champ Ronda Rousey: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus)
def. Miesha Tate: $28,000


(And he couldn’t be happier, ladies and gentleman! Author’s note: I am so going to hell. Photo via r/MMA)

It might seem disrespectful to discuss something as frivolous as money in these post-Silva-leg-break times, but the salaries for UFC 168 were released earlier today and it is our civic duty to inform you who made out like a bandit and who will be ringing in the New Year with a feast of Ramen noodles and cut up hot dogs (a.k.a “The Danga Delight”).

You’ll be pleased to know that despite shattering his leg to fuck on Saturday, Anderson Silva still made enough money to purchase a nice little villa in the Poconos and enjoy his (probable) retirement. It probably wasn’t the severance package he had in mind, but such is life in the fight game. Meanwhile, Corey Hill is still toiling away in obscurity and predicting when it will rain three days in advance.

The full list of disclosed salaries are after the jump. Per usual, they are absent of any “Of the Night” bonuses, training fees, etc.

Chris Weidman: $400,000 (includes $200,000 win bonus)
def. Anderson Silva: $600,000

Champ Ronda Rousey: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus)
def. Miesha Tate: $28,000

Travis Browne: $56,000 (includes $28,000 win bonus)
def. Josh Barnett: $170,000

Jim Miller: $92,000 (includes $46,000 win bonus)
def. Fabricio Camoes: $8,000

Dustin Poirier: $46,000 (includes $23,000 win bonus)
def. Diego Brandao: $20,000*

Uriah Hall: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Chris Leben: $51,000

Michael Johnson: $36,000 (includes $18,000 win bonus)
def. Gleison Tibau: $39,000

Dennis Siver: $66,000 (includes $33,000 win bonus)
def. Manny Gamburyan: $25,000

John Howard: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
def. Siyar Bahadurzada: $17,000

William Macario: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Bobby Voelker: $12,000

Robert Peralta: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. Estevan Payan: $10,000

Rather than stick to our normal Overpaid-Underpaid method of analysis, I’d just like to repeat one thing: Fabricio Camoes made $8,000 to fight on the biggest main card of the year. I can only hope that some of the extra $5 we were all forced to pay for this card made it into his pocket, or we’ll surely be seeing his face pop up on one of those “Save the Children” commercials in the near future. “For only the price of a cup of (Starbucks) coffee a day, you can help a fighter who is being royally screwed over avoid starvation.”

–J. Jones

The Official “What In the Hell Were You Thinking, Miesha Tate?” Article


(“YOU’VE GOT HER RIGHT WHERE YOU WANT HER, MIESH! SHE’S BREAKING!!” Photo via Getty.)

In the wake of Anderson Silva‘s (likely) career-ending leg break at UFC 168, it seems that many of us have glossed over the absolute nadir of game-planning that took place in the evening’s co-main event. I’m talking, of course, about Miesha Tate‘s insistence on repeatedly initiating the takedown against Ronda Rousey: Judo Savant. It was quite possibly the worst strategy ever attempted in a UFC title fight, and one that frustrated and confused us to our wit’s end.

I don’t know if it was ego, terrible corner advice, plain stupidity, or some combination of the three — although the fact that Tate changed her nickname from “Takedown” to “Cupcake” following her previous loss to Rousey suggests that ego surely played a part — but there is simply no excusing Tate’s baffling gameplan last Saturday. For someone who said she “fantasized” about KO’ing Rousey, Tate seemed all but against engaging Rousey in a straight up battle on the feet. For someone who said she would “shoot herself in the face” if she lost via armbar again, Tate seemed all too willing to play Russian Roulette with the Olympic judoka (#nailedit), diving in on takedowns only to be reversed, flipped, slammed, tossed, and bamboozled by Rousey on all but one occasion.


(“YOU’VE GOT HER RIGHT WHERE YOU WANT HER, MIESH! SHE’S BREAKING!!” Photo via Getty.)

In the wake of Anderson Silva‘s (likely) career-ending leg break at UFC 168, it seems that many of us have glossed over the absolute nadir of game-planning that took place in the evening’s co-main event. I’m talking, of course, about Miesha Tate‘s insistence on repeatedly initiating the takedown against Ronda Rousey: Judo Savant. It was quite possibly the worst strategy ever attempted in a UFC title fight, and one that frustrated and confused us to our wit’s end.

I don’t know if it was ego, terrible corner advice, plain stupidity, or some combination of the three — although the fact that Tate changed her nickname from “Takedown” to “Cupcake” following her previous loss to Rousey suggests that ego surely played a part — but there is simply no excusing Tate’s baffling gameplan last Saturday. For someone who said she “fantasized” about KO’ing Rousey, Tate seemed all but against engaging Rousey in a straight up battle on the feet. For someone who said she would “shoot herself in the face” if she lost via armbar again, Tate seemed all too willing to play Russian Roulette with the Olympic judoka (#nailedit), diving in on takedowns only to be reversed, flipped, slammed, tossed, and bamboozled by Rousey on all but one occasion.

Just take a look over the Fightmetric report for the fight. Better yet, watch these highlights. Do either of these suggest that Tate had fought Rousey before, or spent the past few months studying every aspect of her opponent’s game? Given the long and very bitter history between the two, it was utterly mind-blowing to watch Tate, a six year veteran of the sport, fight as if she had never heard of this Rousey character’s incredible Judo game before.

In Tate’s “strongest” round (the first), Rousey was still able to complete three out of four takedowns, yet Tate’s corner insisted that she was “breaking” — you know, kind of like how Tate told boyfriend/trainer Bryan Caraway to “coast” for the third round of his eventual decision loss to Takeya Mizugaki at UFC on FUEL 8. It was apparently all the (false) confidence Tate needed, as she would open the second round with a few punches before tying up with Rousey and being tripped to the mat with ease.

At this point, one would think that Tate would abandon the grappling game and attempt to keep things standing, where she was at least achieving moderate success with her left hooks and jabs. Wrong. Tate would shoot on yet another takedown only moments later, get hip tossed, and spend the rest of the round fending off Rousey’s submission attacks while getting her fill of knuckle sandwiches in the process.

By the third round, Tate was understandably exhausted. She was physically (and perhaps mentally) broken, and it was only a matter of time until Rousey secured her patented finish. But while the champ also appeared to be getting the better of the standup throughout the fight, Tate was at least able to return fire in that department. On the ground, however, she was a fish swimming against a riptide. She was delaying the inevitable. And it was a shame to see such a talented fighter fight so below her level.

Of course, I cannot state enough how much respect I have for Tate, or how much I enjoyed the fight for that matter. Tate was able to drag Rousey into deeper waters than anyone (including herself) had done before, and she should be commended for her grittiness. But the strategy she brought into the biggest fight of her life and quite possibly the last title fight of her bantamweight career was insanity by definition — Sisyphean, you might say — and completely validated her massive underdog status heading into the fight. While I’m sure that there’s plenty of fight left in Tate, I pray that she takes more away from this loss than she did the first one. Mainly, don’t play into your opponent’s strengths.

At the end of the day, Rousey vs. Tate II more or less confirmed why the women’s bantamweight division could desperately use a Holly Holm-type fighter. Rousey’s victories, while entertaining, have mainly come against fighters brave (or stupid) enough to grapple with her (*cough* message for Sara McMann *cough*). If the UFC ever wants to see a fighter truly push Rousey to the limit — which, maybe they don’t — they’ll need to find someone with a strong enough standup game to outgun the champ and an even stronger wrestling in reverse game to keep her at bay. They need a female Chuck Liddell (*shudders*), so to speak. We know McMann has the grappling prowess, and we know that Cat Zingano packs a wallop on the feet, but until the UFC finds their female Chucky, it’s just going to be Rousey vs. Grappling Dummies 1-16.

–J. Jones