The UFC Thread

[Fugus]

She needs to train in the hyperbolic time chamber.

God I would love to have one of those, wouldn't train in it though, that would be where I slept. Fuck an alarm clock.

[ItachiZaku]

I think people more wanted her to beat Mayweather, cuz Mayweather is a defensive runner type, and what would be more embarrassing to someone like that, then to lose to a girl? I don't think anyone honestly thought it would happen.

[Beazy]

This will force Rousey to do more boxing training. She will be back as a better fighter.

Dat face kik doe` ~ gawd dam.

[Kelimbror]

This will force Rousey to do more boxing training. She will be back as a better fighter.

Dat face kik doe` ~ gawd dam.

I'm really curious what it will force her to do. She has several options, one of which is just going to the WWE or Movies to avoid injuries and keep her star power high. I really hope the fighter in her realizes she got her head inflated, probably some poor training, and essentially avoided trying to fight smart at all costs. It's painful to watch, not just b/c of how hard she got rocked but b/c of her fighting like this was some backyard girl fight as she flailed away.

She needs to work on her boxing so that she has more opportunities to use her judo. She can't expect every girl to either run at her in a hulk rage so she can judo flip them in their face or hide from her until they get armbarred. She needs to take a page out of GSP's book to become better rounded and I think she would be as unstoppable as him. Sometimes that means fighting ugly, being boring, instead of putting your ego and a show to the front and center. That's what gets you utterly rekt.

I still like her a lot, but she got what was coming to her after all the drama leading up to it and how she acted in the ring.

[Collegeguy]

I don't recall anyone every saying Ronda could beat Mayweather in a BOXING match.
Plenty think she could beat him in an MMA match. And still do.

Ronda lost trying to out strike a boxer, she got her ass kicked doing it to. She lost fair and square, but that doesn't mean that she still couldn't take Mayweather in an MMA fight.

Apparently not since she hasn't shown a good counter to someone who has more precision and reach which Mayweather would trounce. She knew what she was up against long before and had no answer for it.

[Deleted]

I don't recall anyone every saying Ronda could beat Mayweather in a BOXING match.
Plenty think she could beat him in an MMA match. And still do.

And they'd be very very wrong. It's laughable to even contemplate she would stand a chance.

[Kelimbror]

Apparently not since she hasn't shown a good counter to someone who has more precision and reach which Mayweather would trounce. She knew what she was up against long before and had no answer for it.

The idea of Rousey beating Mayweather and similarly Conor is as is. Without training, UFC fighters are ready for boxing and boxers are not ready for judo and all sorts of other rough and tumble. People read a lot into those comments, since it's confident people saying it, but it's true.

If all Holly Holm had was boxing and she hadn't trained specifically to stop all of Ronda's game, she would have been destroyed like everyone else. She won with a head kick, not punching her to death...she even stated this herself in interviews.

I do think that Ronda likely trained poorly, but who knows whether it was her or her coaching? Her last fight showed that she could stand up and win off the mat, but it's like they focused on going for her standby moves and then she just gave up when it didn't work.

The reason it was shocking is because Holm executed so perfectly and Rousey just...didn't do anything. It was really weird, tbh, but that's not taking anything away from Holm. She deserved that victory like 5 times over for that performance.

[ItachiZaku]

going to the WWE to avoid injuries

I dunno, Rollins career as we know it might be over with his blown need (his style).

And yeah. Ronda had a taken down in there and had her in the clinch twice, Holly defended them quite well and even converted one into a taken down of her own.

[Deleted]

We're going to see a rematch and I foresee Rousey actually getting her act together and dropping a lot of the extra shit she has on the side (movies, etc). I don't think all her previous opponents were bad and that's why she was able to beat them. I don't think that it took a "real" fighter to beat her.

Just watching the videos of previous Rousey fights, this fight doesn't look like she was prepared - she's sloppy. I honestly think she got a big head and slacked off to also pursue other things.

Id like to see a rematch fight because I honestly don't think Rousey was on the top of her game. You don't get that many wins if you're terrible and it certainly wasn't luck.

She got exposed for the one trick pony she really is. Bull-rush, submit and go for the arm bar.
In the army they taught us that when facing your average opponent it's better to master very few effective moves than to be mediocre at many moves. It's an effective strategy and one that Rousey has been employing with great success. Now however she faced a really seasoned fighter. One of the best and most merited female fighters of all time and she lost badly.

[Deleted]

I find it bizarre that Ronda would go with the gameplan she chose. Perhaps she believed her own hype, believed herself to be invincible, that she felt she could charge in on a world champion boxer. Rather than trying to knock her out she should've waited for the opportunity to rip her arm off like she used to do.

[Collegeguy]

The idea of Rousey beating Mayweather and similarly Conor is as is. Without training, UFC fighters are ready for boxing and boxers are not ready for judo and all sorts of other rough and tumble. People read a lot into those comments, since it's confident people saying it, but it's true.

Everyone has a strong idea of how those matches would end up, but it's far reaching when talking cross genders. I'd be the first to agree it's sexist to say one sex is smarter than the other, but when it comes to speed and power of athleticism, it's just a scientific fact when on the same level.

If Mayweather prepared, he'd surely trounce her. As been said before, the Ronda strategy against strikers has been to rush and survive one or two punches for some quick judo. Even Mayweather didn't prepare, don't think she could survive those first two and still have the stamina.

[Kontinuum]

Rousey vs Mayweather

[nbm02ss]

The point being that she was rocked so early in the fight that she didn't stand a chance. Had she just gone for takedowns and used her ground game right at the start there is a very real chance that she would have annihilated Holm but instead she stood there, got rocked, and couldn't ever recover.

Did we watch the same fight? Rousey tried to initiate the clinch 5 separate times in the first round alone. Rousey rushes in with a left hook to try to get in close, dump her opponent on their head, and then sub them; Holm figured this out very early on and picked her apart because of it; in the 2nd round when Rousey hit a knee and spun around? It was because Holm KNEW the left hook was coming, and easily avoided it.

[THE Bigzoman]

That's what happens when a grappler tries to grapple with a non-grappler, you get fucking rocked.


God damn, I couldn't count how many times Rousey tried to close the gap and clinch.

[Vampiroth]

Yall act like Holly Holm hasn't grappled in her life. LMAO. This thread is comical.

[Deleted]

Was expected when footwork happens. RR always bullrushed with crappy striking

[Zeoni]

also helps that she has Greg Jackson and Winklejon as her coaches, they prepared Jones for Cormier pretty damn well (helps he's a genetic freak too) and clearly had a great gameplan vs Rousey.

[Vampiroth]

Izzy Martinez is the reason DC couldn't take down Jon Jones. And yes that is Holly Holm wrestling coach.

[nbm02ss]

Ronda would benefit from a camp change, and a tune up fight or two before rematching Holm, otherwise there's little to no chance that she closes the holes in her game and Holly kills her again; you can't learn the kind of footwork and other tools that Holm has in the span of time it would take for them to get matched up again.

We all know that $$$ dictates the match making in the UFC, so expect a rematch sooner rather than later, unless Ronda does what she said she wants to do and just disappears for a while.

Ronda is still undeniably the most important women's MMA athlete so far; she's the singular reason for women's MMA in the UFC, and she still destroys 90% of the division, even though Holm gave, and demonstrated, the blueprint necessary to beat her.

[Damajin]

I saw the match after it happened and was stunned at how much Ronda got destroyed, I don't follow this stuff all that much so all the little details about how to counter her and all the things about Holm were unknown to me but watching it and reading this thread and some articles after this whole situation reminds me of the Mike Tyson loss to Buster Douglas with how poorly he fought, how everyone expected Tyson to destroy him and how it was poor prep/indifference that finally took him down.

Not going to draw exact parallels because Tyson went severe whackjob later on but it was that removal of his invincibility that was the crucial thing he lost, whether or not it was actually real. Ronda can walk away sure, but if she doesn't then I think it's an uphill battle to pick up those pieces.