UFC TONIGHT

[oats]

Originally Posted by Useless

Ronda is not a wrestler. She doesn't shoot for takedowns. She get em thru the the clinch. And she couldn't take down holly when they clinched. Which is surprising. And she couldn't clinch like she wanted cuz holly kept putting that left hand in her face and keeping her distance.

@quaker oats

this is basically correct. Rousey's striking has been grossly overrated recently. her offensive boxing is actually pretty solid (she used a nifty trick to catch Holm with a left hook at the end of the first round), but her defensive boxing has always been terrible. She's been too willing to eat punches in the past, but it's paid off cuz she clinches and tears people up. Holm defended against the hip tosses as good as you possibly can. more so than stiffarming and throwing short elbows (which she also did), her elbow was constantly tucked and digging into Rousey's hips. It really was perfect. Rousey was a few seconds away from cinching that armbar, too, but Holm scrambled to her feet well.

Ultimately, I think Rousey finally met her athletic equal, and Holm was way better prepared. It was obvious that once Rousey got flustered, she had no plan B and didn't/couldn't make adjustments.

Holm fought perfectly, though. Her striking has NEVER been as accurate as it was against Rousey, in the entirety of her MMA career. Perfect performance against what really was an arrogant, unprepared fighter. Shit was crazy. Check out my column on Monday morning for more hot takes on the fight ;)