Mixed Martial Arts fighting (MMA) is arguably even more barbaric than cockfighting or dogfighting – as Michael Vick might contend. Therefore, only the animalistic part of my nature explains why I am such a big fan. (At least Boxing purports to be “the sweet science of bruising.”)
Because of its barbarity, some might find it ironic that MMA’s biggest star is a woman, Ronda Rousey. In fact, the media hype surrounding her in recent years was such that Homeric tales of her fighting prowess rivaled Lachaisean images of Kim Kardashian’s butt.
More to the point, one could not help thinking of Rousey as being to MMA what Mike Tyson was to Boxing. For, like Tyson’s in his heyday, the only suspense her fights held was in the amount of time her opponents could survive before tapping out.
Then came Saturday:
Holly Holm scored a savage, utterly shocking headkick knockout over Ronda Rousey last night (Sat., Nov. 14, 2015) in the second round of the UFC 193 main event, which took place inside Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
It was a jaw-dropping finish…
Holm handed the unstoppable Rousey — UFC’s most dominant champion and its biggest star — the first professional loss of her fantastic career.
(MMA Mania, SB Nation, November 15, 2015)
Frankly, shocking is an understatement. But I hasten to note here that, even though her team rushed her to hospital after the fight, the wound to her pride must be the deepest one of all.
Of course, the reason this knockout was so shocking is that media hype had even MMA analysts spouting nonsense about Rousey being so domineering she could beat any male MMA fighter in her weight class. Remarkably, even Rousey bought into her own hype. I, however, did not – as this excerpt from “Women in Combat: Hail ‘Woman Power’ Rangers,” August 19, 2015, attests.
___________________
I have celebrated every small step women have taken over the years towards integrating professions traditionally reserved for men. And I could not be more pleased to celebrate their latest. Not least because, with all due respect to Tysonesque MMA fighter Ronda Rousey, it demonstrates that women are just as capable of performing in armed combat as men…
I reference Rousey in this context because, as reported on the August 12 edition of ESPN’s Sports Center, she’s now claiming that she can beat any man, including reigning boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, in a ‘no-rules fight’ – whatever that means (knives allowed?).
But this makes a mockery of woman-power aspirations. After all, it’s one thing for a 29-year-old Billie Jean King to challenge a 55-year-old Bobby Riggs to a Tennis match in a ‘Battle of the Sexes.’ It’s quite another for Rousey to challenge Mayweather to a street fight. Especially given that her bull-in-China-shop style of fighting would be no match even for a female MMA fighter with just one half of Mayweather’s ability to stick and move and counterpunch; you know, the tactics journeyman Buster Douglas used to knock out invincible Mike Tyson.
Rousey clearly thinks she’s invincible too. But this one-trick pony will have to show me a lot more than ‘the armbar submission’ before I buy into her media hype.
__________________
Mind you, even though she too was undefeated going into this fight, I had no idea Holly Holm would be Ronda Rousey’s Buster Douglas. I just knew it was only a matter of time before a fighter with bona fide MMA (boxing) skills exposes her obvious weaknesses.
That said, my title alludes to ring announcer Howard Cosell’s famous exclamations in 1973, when George Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier. And my excerpt features Mayweather and Tyson. But I don’t mind admitting that I’m heavily invested in the hype about Muhammad Ali being the greatest boxer of all time.
Ali sealed his legendary status in 1964, when he shocked the world by knocking out Sonny Liston. I fear Rousey may have ceded hers on Saturday, when Holm shocked the world by knocking her out.
Meanwhile, Rousey could not have known what karma she triggered when she did this:
[Rousey], who was defeated for the first time in her career on Saturday, ignored the referee’s call to make the sporting gesture [of touching gloves with Holm] at the beginning of the encounter.
Instead the 28 year old turned away, put her fists up and prepared to fight.
(UK Daily Mail, November 16, 2015)
No doubt Rousey thought this opening stunt would enhance the badass image she has tried so hard to cultivate. But it only enhances my glee that Holm proceeded to knock her on her ass.
By the way, I fully appreciate that many of you probably don’t know your MMA from your HSA. But to get a sense of my schadenfreude over Rousey’s comeuppance, just imagine the glee you, or any sensible person, would feel if Donald Trump suddenly began polling dead last in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
As it happens, though, wall-to-wall media coverage of the terrorist attacks in Paris spared Rousey much of the public humiliation she should have suffered – her deeply wounded pride notwithstanding.
Congratulations, Holly!
Related commentaries:
Woman power…