UFC 193 has now come and gone and after the historic main event that took place in front of over fifty five thousand people on Saturday Night / Sunday Afternoon in the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, we now have a new UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, Holly Holm. Usually I open these articles by saying that the dust has now settled on said event but the same cannot be said for what transpired at UFC 193. It will take a long time for what happened to settle in.
First off, we have a new UFC Champion, her name is Holly Holm. A thirty four year old veteran of the professional boxing world. Coming into this fight she had an undefeated record of 9-0 in MMA and a record of 33-2-3 (W-L-D) in professional boxing. As I wrote in my previous article “What if Holly Holm actually beats Ronda Rousey” Holly was a massive underdog, at the time of writing that article €100 would have won you €800 with Paddy Power. She was a massive underdog, mainly as a result of her two unimpressive performances in the UFC so far. Her first a split decision win over Raquel Pennington in February and an unimpressive unanimous decision win over Marion Reneau in July. Nobody gave her a chance against the seemingly invincible Ronda Rousey, myself included. I wrote that article as nothing more than a fantasy piece, the same way people daydream about what they would do if they won the lotto, they know it is unlikely it will actually happen, but thinking about it is nice.
Despite being the massive underdog that she was, Holly Holm meant business when she stepped into that Octagon last Saturday night. After reviewing the fight several times myself, it is clear that Holm had the perfect game plan and that she executed it with pin point precision. As an 2008 Olympic Bronze medal winner in Judo, and a woman with a nasty reputation for pulling the perfect armbar in MMA, the ground is exactly where Holm had to avoid this fight going. That was priority number one. Priority number two was to fall back on Holly’s experience as a world champion Boxer, to use distance,her reach advantage, her height advantages, angles and feints. These are things that Holly used beautifully throughout the fight to keep Rousey at bay.
The most surprising thing about the fight was not the quality of Holly’s striking ability, this was to be expected given her resume, also her coaching staff consisting of Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn, two of the best coaches in the game. It was Rousey’s inability to move to a plan B that was most surprising. In all of her fights she has come out aggressive, got her opponents to the ground and then submitted them. She may take a strike or two in doing so but most of the time that didn’t matter because by the time Ronda has her hands on you, it was game over anyway. She attempted this aggressive approach again and again against Holly which was for lack of a better word crazy. Every time she went in, Holly would catch her with a huge jab on the chin, strikes that carried the experience of over 38 professional boxing bouts, something Rousey had never been hit with before.
Now surely in the time since Ronda made her historic announcement on Good Morning America for this fight, herself and her team at Glendale would have had a contingency plan if plan A didn’t work. After losing the first round quite decisively, Ronda must have returned to her corner knowing that something was off, she was greeted by positive feedback from her coach who told her she was doing beautifully and to essentially keep doing what she was doing. By those comments alone, It is clear that Tarverdyan was showing that fight about as much attention as he was showing his tax affairs. Tarverdyan has even made claims since that Holm did not get the better of the striking on the night.
“I wouldn’t say in the striking game she was getting the best of Ronda, you know, but I have to watch it again. But we know this was not a striking match; we know that Ronda is smart enough to take the fight where she is best at and today she did. Holly stopped an attempt on an armbar and stopped some of the takedowns. She did a good job” Tarverdyan speaking with ESPN. Via Bloody Elbow
Going into round two with the awful advice of her corner, Ronda attempted the same aggressive game plan which resulted in Holly Holm landing a head kick on Rousey sixty seconds in which not only knocked Rousey out cold, it also brought her down to earth, it humanised her, Ronda Rousey was no longer invincible.
Nearly four days after the fight I still can’t believe this has actually happened. In February I really believed that Cat Zingano had it in her to at least give Ronda a little trouble. When that fight ended as quick as it did, I believed like so many that Ronda was actually unbeatable. She was too skilled in all areas. Now looking back it was all an illusion. The women she was beating were nowhere near the caliber of athlete that Holly Holm was, none had ever competed at the level that Holm did and for the length of time that she did. Now don’t get me wrong, everything Ronda did for the UFC, for MMA, the barriers she has broken down, the inspiration she was and still is to so many men and women alike and the new fans she has generated. She deserves every bit of credit and media attention she gets for all these achievements. All of that is real. Nobody can take away what she has done for the sport.
Now Ronda finds herself in a situation she probably believed she would never be in her professional career. She has lost her UFC belt, massive holes in her fight game have been exposed, the big money fight with Cris Cyborg now seems pointless, personal issues between her Mam and her coach have surfaced, the list goes on. Since the fight, it has been radio silence from team Rousey. Ronda posted a short message on her Instagram assuring fans she was fine and she would be taking a break.
That last line is crucial, “but i’ll be back”. If she does return, Ronda will have to address the issues in her fight game. Some have suggested on twitter a move away from Glendale to train with higher caliber strikers in order to replicate the movement of Holly Holm. After the woeful advice that Tarverdyan gave Ronda, and the issues her Mam has with him, perhaps it would be best for all involved if they parted company.
On the other hand, Holly Holm has inherited herself a new life. After she knocked out Ronda you could see it dawning in her eyes as she looked down on her opponent in a confused mess on the octagon canvas that her world was about to change. She had defeated the seemingly unbeatable and in such glorious fashion. As it was always going to be for whoever the first to beat Ronda would be, beating her once wasn’t going to be enough. Holly will have to do it all again in a rematch. Probably at UFC 200, the card where the long anticipated Rousey vs Cyborg fight would have taken place had things not gone the way they did at UFC 193. In the meantime whilst Ronda fulfils her Hollywood obligations and reevaluates everything, Holly will be left on the shelve for the rematch. With several of her teammates competing for UFC gold over the next while, perhaps she will focus her attentions there whilst the rest of us await the biggest fight in women’s MMA History.
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