UFC - A Night of Surprises

[BigJake]

Just got back from watching the UFC exhibition in Australia, whose centerpiece of course was the latest Ronda Rousey fight. Lots of interesting surprises:

Spoiler: Such as...

Jared Rosholt beats Stefan Struve by decision
Unexciting but watchable fight, I'm a bit fascinated by "Skyscraper" Struve but he didn't do much here, Rosholt eminently deserved the win.

Robert Whittaker beats Uriah Hall by decision
Maori aggression versus Brazilian style. Hall delivered some spectacular technique early on but somehow it didn't seem to work in his favour, and Whittaker was consistently the aggressor.

Mark Hunt beats Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva by First-Round TKO
Watching Bigfoot these days makes me feel sad, he seems a shell of his former self. The way he folded in the face of a frankly not-that-impressive[-looking] attack from Mark Hunt either means that attack landed in some more brutal way than tape could convey, or... and this possibility did occur to me... something fishy happened.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk beats Valerie Letourneau by decision
One of two fights where we were expecting the champ to steam in and end things in the first round. It didn't happen that way but we were treated to an extended and quite impressive display of guts and pugilistic/kickboxing skill. Still, Joanna -- who my friends and I were calling "Crazy Eyes" the whole time -- clearly fired more and landed more and that made the difference.

Holly Holm beats Ronda Rousey (KO round 2)
Rousey seemed accustomed to just steaming in with maximum aggression, flummoxing her opponents and defeating them before they fully understood what was happening. It didn't work on Holm, who kept it together and exposed holes in Rousey's kickboxing game. Rousey kept trying to steam in anyway and by the second round was flailing almost desperately. Still, seeing her catch that devastating throat-kick was something else.

Anyone who watched the fight and has thoughts about it should feel free to post them here.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

sad part is: I don't think Rhonda was at that fight.. not mentally.

Before the fight she said she could beat Holm and every other woman with one arm.

I almost believe that she actually believed that.. literally. When you have dump trucks of money visiting your house dumping cash all over your driveway every week because you are undefeated, it might actually make someone delusional.. like seriously.

As for Holm.. she was fantastic. She knew Rhonda's weakness was her strength.. boxing.. keeping her distance, using the left.. and I bet that she worked on becoming deadly accurate with it. She fought perfectly.

 

[BigJake]

I find it funny that Rousey actually described her potential defeat precisely (on whatever late-night show that was) before it happened. Turns out being able to see the oncoming train isn't the same thing as being able to avoid it.

Yeah, clearly the hype got into her head. Well before this fight, really, it's just that with Holm it finally caught up to her. (Apparently Rousey's jaw got broken in three places, so it's going to be quite a while before there's any rematch. Hope she learns something from it and comes back.)

Also, this is a useful reminder. Watching all the jackals coming out of the woodwork after Rousey's first defeat is actually a bit gross (yeah, hi, Bethe Correia? someone beat her but it wasn't you and she still fucked you right up and you still deserved it).

 

[FPAlpha]

So.. will she move to LA and train in some third grade gym with an ex-Pro UFC fighter, go through an existential crisis and come through better and badder than before and kick some Holm ass to the tune of some catchy pop song that becomes a classic and will forever be associated with her?

 

[BigJake]

You know it's funny? I was imagining exactly that.