USA TODAY International Edition
Holm shatters Rousey mystique with stunning KO
First loss for champ after 2nd round knockout
MELBOURNE, It
AUSTRALIA wasn’t an improbable scene from a movie, it wasn’t a momentary lapse before normality was restored, and no, we weren’t imagining it.
That really was Ronda Rousey, on her back on the canvas, being saved by the referee from an opponent’s onslaught and surrendering her perfect record in mixed martial arts in the process.
The legend of Rousey as an unstoppable force, impossible to either stop or silence, was indeed broken by Holly Holm on Saturday night, in an upset that flipped the world of women’s UFC on its head.
Holm was the underdog of all underdogs, dismissed and derided as yet another in a long line of Rousey victims in the lead- up to UFC 193 at Etihad Stadium.
Part of that was her own relative inexperience in the octagon, but most of it was down to the mystique of Rousey, who leapt into the public consciousness and her role as MMA’s biggest star in rapid time.
Yet this is a sport where reputations and records can be broken in an instant, and so it transpired on a Melbourne afternoon that will have long- standing repercussions within the sport.
Rousey, always a woman in a hurry, was thrown off by Holm’s patience, spatial awareness and willingness to move out of harm’s way. By the end of the first round, Rousey’s face was scuffed and bloodied. Less than a minute into the second, her position as the queen of the fight game had been stolen away.
It had been taken by Holm’s perfect mix of stealth, technique and raw power. The 35- year- old former world boxing and kickboxing champion, from Albu- querque, N. M., kept her foe at arm’s length with a series of punishing straight left elbows and punches.
The more she flitted out of Rousey’s reach, the more the champion became frustrated, and the more she tried to unleashed ferocious swings that quickly became ragged.
After Holm escaped from an attempt by Rousey to lock on her signature armbar at the midway point of the first round, you sensed that she might survive for a good length of time.
After Holm ducked under a looping hook, the momentum of which sent Rousey flying facefirst into the cage, you sensed she could win.
The end came suddenly and brutally. Holm unleashed a crushing kick with her left to the side of Rousey’s head and neck. It was a knockout blow, and Rousey tumbled to the canvas like a stone. Holm homed in, delivering a pair of strikes to the face before referee Herb Dean correctly ended the contest.
Maybe we should have known better. Sports, especially one as unpredictable as this, have a habit of making apparent certainties seem anything but.
Holm tried to tell us. She said she had the game plan, the world title experience, the calm head and inner belief to shock the world. To be fair, many had said similar things before and ended up flat on their faces.
Holm chose her words carefully, but the ones she spoke she meant — and was able to back them up when it mattered.
As for the sport itself, defeat, as UFC president Dana White said at Etihad Stadium, changes a lot of things. Yet while the Rousey victory juggernaut was a fiscal stream the UFC would have been happy to see flow long and unimpeded, Holm’s upset win may not constitute a disaster, or anything like it, for the sport.
The brevity of Rousey’s victories, had they continued to be accumulated with such simplicity and ruthlessness, could have caused White some headaches. It is not so easy to persuade viewers to cough up $ 60 a pop when the main event clocks out after mere seconds. Rousey’s three previous contests had lasted just 64 seconds combined.
White might not admit it, but he surely believed that the UFC was about to witness a one- woman dynasty. Instead, they may have something even better — a rivalry.
When quizzed post- fight, White stated that a rematch “makes sense” and admitted it will be the fight most desired by fans. Holm agreed to grant one, and assuming Rousey makes a full recovery after being hospitalized as a precaution overnight, the UFC 200 event on July 9 would be a tantalizing option.
The landmark occasion nature of the event and the fact that it will be held in the new Las Vegas Arena means White is looking to stack the card and there would be no bigger contest than a second meeting between the deposed champ and the new one.
The UFC has prided itself on staging the toughest, most competitive fights. That approach is what has helped MMA gain such a significant and passionate following but, combined with the sudden nature with which victory can be obtained, means that even undefeated champions who dominate repeatedly lose sooner or later.
Next time it would be Rousey with a point to prove and Holm with a perfect record to protect, with the anticipation likely to guarantee the most- watched and lucrative women’s fight in history.
Furthermore, unlike any UFC women’s bantamweight title fight since the division was implemented, it would also be seen as a coin- flip between two even-matched rivals.
For Holm was unfazed by Rousey’s reputation, or her aggressive show of bravado at the weigh- in, or what the oddsmakers had to say. She didn’t mind the bulk of the attention being on her opponent. Or that everyone assumed she would be victim number 13 for Rousey in UFC.
If indeed the rematch happens, it will be fascinating to see how Rousey responds, and whether she has learned from the over- aggressive approach that led her into harm’s way in Melbourne.
The belt has been lost, so too the aura of invincibility and mystical status, but the Rousey story still has some ways to go before it is fully played out. For now she has a co- star to shoulder the burden, one she will surely look to seek revenge upon.