It all had to end some time, but should Holm defeating Rousey be the upset people are making it out to be?
The MMA world is currently engaged in a frenzy surrounding the dethroning of international superstar Ronda Rousey, who fell to a second round head kick and was forced to relinquish her status as the only female bantamweight champion in company history. Rousey will forever be credited with her pioneering role in bringing female mixed martial arts to the masses, and has achieved a level of mainstream appeal like no one before her, crossing entertainment borders and appearing alongside the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on the big screen.
Despite the red carpets, the endorsements and the legion of adoring fans, this sport can be cruel, and we are reminded time and time again that even those who seem invincible are not immune to defeat. Holly Holm made the walk to the octagon in front of a record crowd, stood face to face with arguably the most polarising figure in the sport’s history, remained unfazed, and got the job done.
UFC colour commentator Joe Rogan compared the victory to Matt Serra’s historic shocker over Georges St. Pierre back in 2007, but is it possible we were buying too far into the UFC hype machine to accept Holm as a threat to the champion?
The issue for many when Holm was announced as Rousey’s opponent was the fact that she had a ways to go in terms of rising through the ranks at 135 pounds, she had achieved a number 7 ranking and never faced one of the division’s established elite before accepting a title challenge, and had admitted herself that she would have liked to develop more before facing off with Rousey. But does this mean we should have accepted a Rousey victory as a formality? We had seen little weakness out of Holm in earlier fights, we just had questions about how she would fare against the top of the division. Tonight those questions were answered.
Holm brought to the table an elite pedigree in Rousey’s weaker area – striking. Something the now former champion had never truly had to deal with, and it was obvious from early in the fight that Rousey’s movement and ability to deal with technical striking pressure are simply not of a calibre that could match Holm’s game.
Once Rousey acknowledged that she could not stand in front of the challenger, attempted to tie up, and realised she would have little luck in her bread and butter area either, the pendulum well and truly swung in Holm’s favour, and all she had to do was pull the trigger.
Of course, hindsight is 20/2o, but I feel as though history will not look back on this fight as the biggest upset in UFC history, but rather the night we realised that all the hype surrounding Holly Holm’s potential when she first made the jump from boxing to MMA was well deserved. As well as the night we saw that, while Rousey was tearing through all comers, she was leaving holes that would just take the right match up, with the right game plan, to expose.
Where does the women’s Bantamweight division go from here? It’s hard to say. Dana White stated at the post fight press conference that a Holm vs Rousey rematch makes “A lot of sense” despite the fact that it absolutely does not and the UFC would only make such a booking in an effort to maintain what drawing power is left of their now fallen star. The division is in more than capable hands with its new Queen, and you can bet that perennial contenders such as Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano are overjoyed by the divisions revitalised championship landscape, and the subsequent potential for previously overlooked contenders who became a part of Rousey’s hit list to get another shot at the division’s fresh faced champion.
Rousey will forever be remembered as one of the most important figures in this era of MMA, but UFC 193 served as the latest reminder that anything can happen in this crazy sport. Don’t be so quick to write anybody off, they may just surprise you.
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