Rousey suffers brutal TKO loss
Ronda Rousey’s UFC career looks to be over after her long-awaited comeback ended in a first round TKO loss.
Champion Amanda Nunes went on the attack from the start and caught Rousey with a flurry of punches from both hands to win in just 48s as they headlined UFC 207 in Las Vegas yesterday.
Nunes showed the power that has lifted her to the top of the bantamweight division.
Rousey was arguably the most dominant mixed martial arts fighter in the sport’s history until she lost her belt 13 months ago in a stunning second round knockout loss to Holly Holm.
The division has been a merrygo-round since then with Nunes the third women to hold the belt since Rousey’s demise.
But Brazil’s Nunes stands firmly in control now and Rousey, who looked so rattled in her loss to Holm, will surely not be able to come back from an even more painful loss.
Rousey had been silent in the week leading into the fight, hoping to let her fists do the talking. But she was gun-shy on her return and hardly fired a shot, being on the back foot from the outset.
‘‘She’s had her turn, I’m the champion now,’’ Nunes, dubbed ‘‘The Lioness’’, said.
This was an impressive victory that left Rousey, a fight favourite with the Vegas bookmakers, stunned.
Rousey, who was still on her feet, briefly protested the stoppage before leaving the cage in her mother’s arms.
Her face was battered and her ego bruised again, but her bank balance was in good health. Win, lose or draw, Rousey was guaranteed a payday of US$3 million, matching Conor McGregor for the biggest disclosed check in UFC history.
Rousey drops to 12-2 and Nunes goes to 14-4 with her first successful title defence earning her a US$200,000 fee.