Tag: UFC 193

The late rapper Keith Elam aka Guru of the group Gang Starr wrote the following in the classic song “Moment of Truth:” “Nobody’s invincible. No plan is foolproof. We all must meet our moment of truth.”

On Sunday morning in Melbourne, Australia, at UFC 193, Ronda Rousey met hers. Holly Holm dismantled the UFC women’s bantamweight champion in less than two rounds. A nasty head kick finished the fight and stripped Rousey of her undefeated record and her title.

MMA Fighting called it the KO of the Year and possibly the biggest one in the history of the sport:

It’s hard to call them a prisoner of the moment. Rousey had never been seriously challenged in any of her previous 12 fights. She had strung together a series of first-round finishes, and Holm seemed a bit green in her two previous UFC bouts.

None of that mattered on Sunday, as Holm executed a flawless game plan en route to the mega upset. While Rousey declined comment after the fight and left for the hospital, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the new champion spoke about her win:

Holm utilized superior athleticism, length and striking prowess to befuddle Rousey in the first round. Rousey simply couldn’t close the distance. She was able to get the fight to the ground for a brief moment in the first round, but Holm stayed poised, got to her feet and escaped Rousey’s dreaded arm bar.

That was the turning point in the fight. All of the air had to go out of Rousey’s sails at that moment. She had to see she was completely overmatched in the striking department as Holm’s boxing acumen proved to be a major factor. If Rousey couldn’t fall back on her grappling to save her, she was in trouble.

The worst of that trouble would come in the second round. A visibly tired, desperate and reckless Rousey chased Holm and consistently ran into left and right hands. At one point, Holm ducked under a Rousey punch, sending her careening into the fence like an amateur.

Shortly thereafter, a hard right hand dazed Rousey. It was followed by a head kick that knocked Rousey out cold. Holm pounced on Rousey, but referee Herb Dean waved off the bout. Holm had shocked the world.

Almost immediately, there was talk of a rematch from White and members of the media at the post-event press conference.

Depending on when it takes place, the draw would be absolutely huge. Everything about it seems perfect for UFC 200. The humongous show will need as many high-profile fights as possible.

Rousey’s return to the Octagon would undoubtedly make for one of the biggest.

It may be hard to believe, but Rousey has a lot of work to do if she hopes to have a better showing against Holm in a rematch. The new champion was well prepared and mentally tough.

Rousey’s striking defense has never been great. She would normally rush her opponent and overwhelm them with her judo prowess—and lately her striking. Neither plan worked against Holm. No one would have believed this before Sunday, but Holm exposed Rousey as a rather one-dimensional attacker. 

Rousey must get better with her striking defense and learn to cut off the cage to initiate the clinch she needs to be successful. Former heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis agrees:

While things look down for Rousey at the moment, at least Reebok is still showing love for one of its prized athletes:

Not everyone was as supportive. Rousey’s rival Miesha Tate seemed to take pleasure in her nemesis’ downfall: 

It seems almost certain Rousey will be back. Be on the look out for her return commercials from Reebok and anyone else looking to get in on the hype. If she isn’t able to improve upon her performance, the list of supporters will dwindle.

It’s a tough world.

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Ronda Rousey (12-1) was already unconscious as challenger Holly Holm’s final three punches landed to her jaw, as perfunctory as they were brutal. But, in this case, you can forgive referee Herb Dean his glacial reaction time at UFC 193 on Saturday night. Officials are only human—and Dean, like the rest of us, needed time to pick his jaw up off the floor before he could possibly move in to stop the fight.

Rousey, after all, was no mere champion. She was the most dominant fighter in MMA history. In human history, if announcer Joe Rogan was to be believed in the pre-fight hype. No opponent had ever survived to hear a judge’s decision. In every fight save one, foes didn’t even last long enough to hear the bell announcing the second round.

When Holm (10-0) managed a whole minute with the champion, she entered an elite club. When she sent Rousey crashing to the mat with a left high kick, she entered immortality.

A Holm win, despite the overwhelming odds, was always in the realm of possibility. If there was a fighter on the UFC roster with the tools to beat Rousey, it was Holm. Mobile, strong, battle-tested and disciplined, she had the building blocks to drag Rousey into deep waters and pull off the miracle.

But even those of us who saw a path to victory for Holm never imagined an ending quite so emphatic. A decision seemed more likely, with Holm’s hand being raised only after 25 minutes of careful fighting. How Rousey would handle frustration—her ability to navigate an opponent who would make things difficult at every turn—was an open question entering the fight. 

Who knew her every answer would be dead wrong?

As expected, Holm stayed off the center line, moved laterally and forced Rousey to chase. Holm landed her first one-two in the first 30 seconds, and the momentum never truly shifted.

Holm’s game plan required Rousey to pursue relentlessly, and the former champion seemed happy to oblige, often bouncing or even running after her, the boxer’s shuffle immediately forgotten. As expected, despite proclamations of her boxing prowess, Rousey didn’t have the ring craft to corner Holm. And, as expected, the fighters ended up in the clinch anyway.

Holm, like so many before her, wound up on the mat in Rousey’s world. As she had nine times before, Rousey scrambled quickly for the armbar that had cemented her fame. It was only then that Holm went off script, defending sharply, standing smartly and even landing a punch to the mush for good measure. 

Rousey may have suspected she was in trouble before that moment. Afterward, she knew it. But she never recovered.

By the end of the first round Rousey’s mouth and nose were bleeding, her ego was in tatters, and her eyes betrayed defeat, even as coach Edmond Tarverdyan attempted to bolster her spirits with the ludicrous proclamation that she had Holm right where she wanted her.

Thirty seconds into the second round, Rousey’s flailing momentum sent her crashing to the mat. Moments later she was unconscious on her back. 

There have been other paradigm-shifting fights in UFC history. But there’s never been a champion fighter who looked nearly as helpless as Rousey did against Holm. While the challenger stuck to her game plan like it was handed down by the MMA gods, Rousey seemed to have no plan at all.

“We didn’t want to be there for her counter,” Holm told Fox Sports after the fight. “She has knockout power. I didn’t want to make that a habit getting hit by the counter. We needed to move and be precise. She hit me a few times. She has the power, but you have to be in range. I wanted to go forward in a smart way. I didn’t want her to bum-rush me to the cage. The game plan we had worked out great.”

If Rousey had worked on cutting off the cage against a mobile opponent, it wasn’t immediately obvious. Instead, she devolved to instinct, winging haymakers that never had a prayer of landing. When forced to dig deep for the first time, she showed she had no second gear. By the end, after less than six minutes of competition, she was heaving for breath, waiting for the inevitable.

The UFC likes to compare Rousey with former boxing champion Mike Tyson. UFC President Dana White has a print of the boxer hanging on his office wall. In the end, it was more apt than he knew.

Like Tyson, Rousey ran through lesser opponents with startling violence. Like Tyson, she established a fearsome reputation both in and out of the cage. And, like Tyson, like all bullies, she folded up at the first sign of resistance. When things got hard, Rousey didn’t have the fortitude to see things through.

It’s easy, in retrospect, to see Rousey’s fall coming. Chaos reigned, in both her personal and professional lives. There will be a tendency to make that the story of this fight. To do so would be a grave disservice to Holm, who deserves better. Rousey didn’t beat herself. Holm dominated, both mentally and physically.

What happens next will decide how we tell the Ronda Rousey story. Like Tyson, Rousey’s legend was built on her own perceived invulnerability. Many fans, and many of her opponents if we’re being honest, never thought for a moment she could lose. Rousey may have even believed that herself. 

What happens now, when her fallibility has been so brutally exposed, not just to the world but to herself? No matter what Rousey believes, a champion’s greatness isn’t predicated on perfection. Everyone stumbles. True champions get off the mat and get better.

Tyson never could. Can Rousey? 

 

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com