I’m not familiar with Holm but understand that she was a boxing champ. Obviously, Rousey is the overwhelming favorite, but does anyone think that Holm at least has a puncher’s chance. If not, how about making it past the 1st round?
I think that Holm has the ability to follow through on a game plan, which gives her an advantage over anyone else that Rousey has fought. She won’t try to bull rush Rousey, like everyone else has. That alone will probably get her to the third round, before Rousey decides to stop playing with her.
Holm’s only chance would be to keep Rousey on her feet for five rounds, and try to out-point her. But Rousey is going to eventually take it to the ground; Holm doesn’t appear to have knockout punching power, and she’s not going to risk any of those head kicks, for fear of getting scooped up, but Rousey has demonstrated that she’s willing to eat a few jabs in order to get close enough to throw you.
My prediction: Rousey by submission, third round.
Holm doesn’t really have one-punch power, so she doesn’t have much of a puncher’s chance. That’s not a knock on Holm, since almost no women have the upper-body strength to deal out a one-punch knockout. Neither do most men, but even fewer women.
As Reluctant A. says, she won’t bull-rush Rousey. Her problem is going to be keeping Rousey from bull-rushing her. Holm’s best/only chance might be to get set and try to nail Rousey coming in. Which also probably won’t work, for reasons mentioned above, but has a better chance than trying to dance away and score with jabs.
I have a feeling that this will resemble Rousey’s early fights - the ref calls “Time!”, Rousey charges (perhaps taking a jab or two on the way in, but not noticing), and then uchimata or harai-goshi followed by juji-gatame and a submission. If it lasts two minutes, I will be surprised.
I am the worst prophet in the world, so FWIW. Rousey in the first. That girl is tough.
Regards,
Shodan
I’m no fight analyst, but trying to outlast Rousey and win a decision sounds like a terrible strategy. Holm has a boxing background, but if she doesn’t have a knockout punch I think she has no chance. Even if you don’t bull-rush, Rousey will bring the fight to you. She doesn’t play with opponents, as evidenced by her ultra-quick victories. I think you need land an early, hard blow to at least stun Rousey.
Prediction: Rousey in the 1st.
Rhonda by knockout or whatever it is you call it when someone’s punching you and you can barely defend yourself and the ref calls the match. First round
TKO
WHOA
Well, THAT was unexpected.
Congratulations to Holly Holm, she trained hard, fought well and won a decisive and much deserved victory.
Ronda was an asshole, insulting Holm and refusing to touch gloves after the referee’s instructions. I’ve been a fan but now I’m happy to see her brought down a notch.
I know next to nothing about this sport - complete ignorance apart from the discussions I’ve previously seen here - but I would never have dreamed that “Rousey gets her ass handed to her early in the second” was even an option.
Here’s a video of the fight’s final seconds.
Looks like Rousey was off balance both when she was set up for the kick and again when kick came. It looks like the real damage came when her head hit the mat. She bit the dust hard!
Rousey’s been hospitalized, probably with a concussion. The ref let Holm get in another two blows on the obviously unconscious Rousey and a third was struck as he finally decided to stop it. So Rousey took one blow to the head from the kick, another bad one when her head bounced off the mat, and three more blows as she lay helpless on the mat. So five likely knock-out blows delivered to her head in a matter of seconds. There ought to be a prohibition against letting a fighter pound away on an obviously helpless opponent like that.
I’m reminded of the Emille Griffith-Benny “Kid” Paret boxing match in 1962 where Peret died ten days after having been pummeled while unconscious and against the ropes. I was a young boy at the time and it really stayed with me. I hope Ronda will be okay.
Just to point out that Rousey was taking a beating from the first bell onward. Im not an MMA fan but did enjoy that matchup. Props to both fighters.
I haven’t seen the rest of the fight but I have read that Holm was pretty much handing Rousey her ass the whole time. By mentioning Rousey being off balance I just meant to highlight that she was virtually helpless at the time the kick came, not that she was the victim of momentary bad luck in a fight she was otherwise winning.
Fair enough. The killer instinct amongst these fighters is unbelievable. I do not mean killer instinct literaly of course, but when I’d most likely be admiring my own landed punch these men/women without thinking are moving in for the kill again. It’s hit first think afterwards. It’s both sickening and admirable at the same time.
This mornings sport show host said it is like Tyson-Douglas; in that Tyson’s limitations were exposed.
Hmmm.
I understand and agree. The best fighters have that killer instinct and it’s the ref’s job to know when to bring things to a halt. Where I have a quarrel is with the ref not moving in as soon as Rousey’s head bounced off the mat. She was lying there not moving except from the force of the blows being rained down on her and was clearly out. He shouldn’t have just bent over watching Holm hit her twice more before moving to stop it as a third blow rained down.
Having said that, had things been reversed I have no doubt Rousey would have been all over Holm in the same way. I’m not faulting Holm, I just think standards should be established to prevent unconscious fighters from continuing to be pummeled.
I felt badly for Holm after the fight. Once she’d made her celebratory run around the ring and noticed that Rousey was in bad shape she knelt down to see how Ronda was doing and was clearly worried for her. It’ll be awful for her should the worst happen and Ronda actually die or wind up brain damaged. That’s a hell of a burden to carry for the rest of one’s life, especially coming on the heels of such a fantastic victory. Here’s hoping and praying no such thing happens, for both their sakes.
I read a similar comparison, though without the observation about Tyson’s limitations being exposed. I agree with that observation. Ronda was clearly in way over her head and many of us didn’t think such a thing was possible.
I can’t disagree with any of this, especially the part about Tyson.
While I didn’t offer a prediction in the OP, I did predict that Holm would win about a minute into the match. Rousey was eating punch after punch and her face resembled a tomato very early on.
The announcers immediately started talking about a rematch but, quite frankly, Rousey isn’t ready. She was outclassed and had no chance. The fixes she needs to make to her game will take years if even possible. As they say, styles make fights, and Holm’s style is not good for Rousey’s.