Can someone explain the obsession w/Ronda Rousey

Absolutely. They need to cash that check as soon as possible. A fight against Tate does half the PPVs that a rematch would, and you can't risk Rousey losing again and being totally out of the picture.

Sidenote: Watched a few more gifs of the fight and it is almost funny how outclassed Rousey was in striking. Her coaches did her a disservice by convincing her that she could actually box.

 

I honestly think the problem was Rousey knew she was outclassed and had no way of countering Holm straight up but tried anyway. Out of pride? Out of hubris? I don't know.
In her last few fights, all cakewalks, Rousey stormed her opponent and crushed her easily with her fists. Today? Rousey was tentative. It's like she was trying to avoid slugging it out and then said screw it and went with the stand up game which was a massive mistake.
If Rousey got Holm on the ground, really on the ground, she would've submitted her but the one time it looked like she might, Holm dug her way out.
Great fight by Holm. Shit effort by Rousey. But this is what happens when you have one athlete focused solely on this and another who is getting put in the main event every three months because of the buyrate and trying to focus on seventy things that aren't MMA.

 

All the comparisons to Tyson-Douglas...sure hope Ronda doesn't rape anyone before the rematch.

 

She can rape me all she wants.

 

I feel dirty liking a rape joke, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

 

Does this mean we can go back to not caring about women's sports?

 

Women's MMA, perhaps.

 

Probably means the rest of the world will return to ignoring women's MMA, at least. Which is too bad because I think Holm makes for a great champion. But she isn't nearly the media draw Rousey is. Make no mistake, Dana White might be the second most bummed person about this outcome.

 

Holm's interview on FS1 was outstanding

 

It was asking for a like, with its short punchline and the meme that was practically bursting out of the post.
Hell, it was begging for a like.

 

The Rousey hype was out of control. She's a successful fighter but had flaws that her male counterparts simply couldn't get away with. That's not to say Rousey is bad. She is, and this was proved last night, one dimensional and had been somewhat flattered by her competition. To steal a line from someone else, she's the equivalent of Royce Gracie in 1993. Put it this way, Bethe Correia (Rousey's last opponent before Holm) was an overweight accountant who took up MMA four years before the Rousey fight to lose weight. Think about that.



I've liked Holm as a Rousey opponent for a longtime. She's one of the few girls that Ronda can't out athlete, and she's been with Mike Winklejohn since she was 16 years old. Ever since she walked into his gym to take a cardio kickboxing class. He trained her through her boxing career.



Jackson/Winklejohn might be the best MMA camp in the world, and Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn might be the best MMA trainers in the world. I don't think that you can underestimate how much that played into things. Rousey fights out of the Glendale Fight Club with Edmund Tarverdyan, who has never produced another great fighter.



Ronda's mother cut a promo on Tarverdyan a while back and said that he's a terrible coach who won the lottery when Ronda walked through the door. Jackson/Winklejohn have Jon Jones, but if Jon Jones' mother wanted to cut a promo on them it would be dismissed out of hand. It was a good day for them when Jon Jones walked through the door but they produced great fighters before Jon Jones, have other great fighters aside from Jon Jones and will have plenty of great fighters after he is long gone.



Holm comes out of the best MMA camp in the world, has been a professional MMA fighter longer than Rousey (by a matter of days, both turned pro in March 2011) and has been fighting professionally in some form since 2002. Compare that to Correia.



I've seen some commenters online say that Rousey lost because she tried to try and strike with a great striker. That's true, but the reason she ended up striking with a great striker was because she couldn't take Holly Holm down.



There was no plan B. Closing the distance, striking into the clinch then hitting a take-down is what Rousey does. When that didn't work her only other plan seem to involve being recklessly aggressive while trying to get the clinch. Eating strikes while Holm circled out at which point Rousey would begin chasing her again.



Holm, Jackson and Winklejohn have been game planning for Rousey for years and that really showed. Holm's a counter fighter. Reckless aggression is perhaps the worst tactic you can use against her. Yet it seems that when Plan A failed that was all Rousey had.