Let’s start with a caveat: Kotaku is a video game site, not an MMA site.
But considering we covered the UFC’s huge event in Melbourne, by discussing the historic significance of Ronda, it would be remiss if we didn’t update you on the fact that Ronda Rousey made history again…
By losing in the most shocking way possible.
Early in the second round, after struggling against the range and footwork of former boxing champion Holly Holm, Ronda bore the full brunt of a Holly Holm high kick and clattered to the floor. Holm followed up with a series of hammerfists and the fight was stopped.
It was probably the most shocking thing I’ve ever watched happen live.
Ronda strategy appeared to be focused on pressure, but maintaining that pressure seemed to fatigue Ronda throughout the first round, a round she clearly lost. Heading into the second round there was a slow buzz, a feeling we were witnessing something special.
That moment ultimately came with the headkick, and the most shocking upset ever seen in mixed martial arts to date.
Seems like the Madden curse has finally made it to the UFC. First Jon Jones now Ronda.
Unbelievable.
Comments
81 responses to “Ronda Rousey Just Made History In Melbourne”
Damn you kotaku. Have been avoiding the news and Facebook so as not to spoil it and along comes you. Seriously damn you!
Holy shit. Sorry man. But seriously — if you were on the internet you were gonna get spoiled. Seriously. Biggest shock ever.
Mark, this is a low blow to put it in the title and not give people the choice to read or not read. I watched it so I am fine, but I sure as hell don’t have a gaming website listed as an ignore for UFC news. Please change the title immediately to stop further spoiler alerts.
This is a gaming website, you normally have the good sense to mark articles about games that contain spoilers with spoiler alerts. To give sporting event results in the title is not what Kotaku readers would expect.
Ok, I’ve fixed it. I was in a taxi for the last 40 mins.
Just a note – the “By losing is the most shocking way possible.” line still appears on the portion of text that gets put on the front page.
Just keep doing what you do Serrels.
Forrest Griffin on the cover of UFC 1
Brock Lesnar on UFC 2
Anderson Silva on UFC 3
Jon Jones on EA UFC.
All went on to stuff up their careers shirtly thereafter. There may be something to this.
Shirtly?
Shirly you know?
Don’t call me Shirley.
To be honest, Brock is the only one who didn’t stuff up his career. Sure he got an injury that kept him out of UFC, but he’s making big money with WWE at the moment.
Griffin, Jones & Silva have done nothing since they disappeared from UFC.
Griffin’s been working with the UFC in a cushy not-really-a-job capacity.
Jones and Silva haven’t “disappeared”, they’ve been unable to compete for various reasons and are both intending on returning.
various reasons? including testing positive for drugs…
Actually, yeah, that’s true in both cases. I was mainly thinking of Silva’s injury.
What about EA Sports MMA both Fedor and Randy ended up losing next fights from memory.
We weren’t about to witness anything special. We just watched the end of the Rousey hype machine. Holms got into Rousey’s head at the weight in and set up shop. Rousey wasn’t on her usual game today, she tried to go toe to toe with Holms instead of going for the submission early like usual; this gave Holms the advantage. Rousey got cocky, then she got smashed. Happens with a lot of hyped up UFC draws. Once the overconfidence kicks in, they are done.
In 10 years time when her face has gone the same way Mickey Rourke’s did when he decided to have a pro boxing career no one will care about her any more, forgotten as the bloodthirsty find a new moderately photogenic woman who can be photoshopped into attractiveness to watch get beaten to a pulp.
+1 (sorry, upvote isn’t working).
Everyone cares very much how little you want to fuck any given woman in the public eye.
No, not cool and you can’t dismiss it by telling him it’s his fault for going online. Andy should be able to expect to go to a video-game and geek culture website and not encounter a spoiler to a sports match put up as the freaking title of an article on the front page?
Seriously, if you HAD to talk about the fight could you at least have put up a non-spoiler header and then discussed the events in article? So people could choose? This is a bit of a dick move.
Between this and all those comic articles leading with plot spoilers in their titles I’m considering deleting my Kotaku bookmark and going elsewhere for my gaming/geek news. How long until your articles just start spoiling the ends of games in their titles?
Just hide that stuff in the article and give the reader the choice.
Sports is different from video game endings and whatnot. That’s pretty much a given.
At the end of the day though, a spoiler is a spoiler. When you are not even coming here for MMA coverage in the first place, having a spoiler like this is real harsh. I have been spoiled in a ton of games before and been able to finish them quite happily, but being spoiled before a sports game is killer. Rarely any point watching it at that point. Again, as JFZeb said, maybe it would be fine if you guys put the result in the article and kept the title spoiler free, so that people could choose whether they find out what happens, and then those of us who want to watch it later can simply move along.
Point taken.
Fair enough! I’ve been spoiled myself and it sucks. So I understand the point of view. I feel like, with sport, it’s fair game because it is by nature, something that happens live. But the point about Kotaku not being a place where you expect to be spoiled is valid.
Fully taken on board.
I even apologised to the guy as well!
It is nice that you apologized, but I do agree that the result doesnt really need to be in the article title. But hey, interesting to see Ronda lose. Now come all the big sooks with tall poppy syndrome on the internet to tell us all how good it is she lost and how she’s such a jerk.
(thumbs up)
Yeah there seemed to be a real nasty Ronda backlash coming along, even before this fight. Really sucks.
Not sure she really did anything right during this whole buildup and fight though. Even the trash talk at the weigh in was a bit off-putting. Hopefully this comes as a reality check for her. Its always the concern when someone is so dominant for so long.
You can’t be surprised. She’s so over exposed right now and way over confident. There’ll always be ppl who want to see someone like that go down.
Personally I like her, but she regularly says things that make me think “oh god get over yourself!” I hope she comes back from this.
I don’t know which Boxer it was who said it, honestly, I can’t remember if it was Tony Mundine Sr (not his son, current Anthony Mundine) or Jeff Fenech, but one of them once said that an occasional defeat was good for a fighter, it reminded them they weren’t unbeatable, gave them humility and made them work harder, it then made clawing their way back to the top even sweeter (I’ve truly paraphrased the shit out of it, but there ya go). Anyhow I heard that said years back, infact I’m *pretty* sure it was Fenech, but anyhow the point stands, a defeat once in a while can give great humility and to be frank, Rousey needed a tiny bit of that, especially with her behaviour at the weigh in where she could’ve taken the high road, but acted like a 12 year old.
Any great lives by this mindset. You have to taste the saltiness of life, to truly appreciate the sweet. I’ve seen a lot of hate going toward Ronda, thinking she had an ego and deserved to get knocked out. People need to recognize what building hype entails, and why it’s important for big fights. Too many people hear or see something in a press-event, or anything prior to a fight and instantly believe that is how that person is in real life.
You also have to appreciate, that to get to the top and stay at the top, you need to have belief in yourself, you need to talk and think positive about yourself, and your abilities. Sure, sometimes you’ll get fighters that don’t even come close to backing up what they say, and that shows when they get easily defeated. Ronda, did make the mistake of becoming too emotional – which she has done for a lot of her fights. Whether this gives her mental strength, or it’s more marketing build-up (probably both), she is still a young fighter.
Joe Rogan said it perfectly post-fight – the way Ronda was fighting was like giving Holly Holm a Christmas present. Holly is a counter fighter, and Ronda kept chasing her down, and running up to her – chin in the air – no real variation to her approach or behavior, and paid the price time after time.
I think all the press events and match-hyping leading up to the fight is very draining on a fighter. That extra strain and anxiety, just leads to fatigue. I don’t think they factor that in, and I doubt Holly attended half the events Ronda would have. Don’t get me wrong, Ronda performed poorly and played straight into Holly’s game plan, she was calm and very technical.
This defeat will be the best thing for Ronda. She did have holes in her game, and sometimes getting knocked out, is the time you really wake.
She didn’t even do the fist bump before the start of the fight. Too busy looking daggers at Holm.
I think you are right. Ronda probably thought deep down that she was so much better than any other fighter that she didn’t really bother ‘fighting’. She just ate the punishment while trying to run Holm down to grapple her. That was definitely an attitude that could easily lead to a downfall.
They had a sports commentator on Triple M talking about her this morning, his biggest takeaway from the fight was her ego was too big. In his own words, the other fighter was a former boxer who was 31-0. That’s a major record for a boxer, an incredible one. When someone has *that* record and you’re a judo expert who specialises in armbars you *do not* try to punch on with them, which Rhonda did. She’ll learn a lot from this and gain a lot of humility no doubt.
It always happens, but yeah, I was shocked at the sudden turn around from people before the fight and the loss was like blood in the water.
The turn around came pretty much as soon she didn’t touch gloves. That is one of the biggest signs of disrespect in sport and fight fans don’t like seeing that.
So yeah she deserved to have her ass beat that badly.
No the turn started before that, with the bulk flooding in after the fight.
It’s human nature, I was just shocked at the extent. (But as they say, the higher you go the further you fall)
Fans should also know that while touching gloves is a sign of respect, not touching gloves doesn’t automatically mean disrespect.
Sure, it can be a snub, but it can also be focus, mind games, fear etc.
Many ignore that mental aspect of combat sports and just get drunk on the tall pretty poppy we admired falling down. So many seem to think they know what was going on inside Rouseys head from the comfort of their chairs.
I mean we all wondered why Rhonda went toe to toe with a boxer, many claim it to be pride and cockiness as though they knew it without a doubt.
Possible yes, but equally possible to be a range of other reasons too.
Example, people always talk about her standing game not being up to scratch, perhaps she wanted to test that. Maybe she felt people would never accept a win by grappling. She could have been frustrated, losing her focus.
Anger, fear, the list goes on.
they still generally acknowledge the other fighter in some way (never paid attention before this but has Ronda never touched gloves?).
This is probably why it was bigger her actions the day before and yesterday is what turned more people.
Her game plan did not really change you cannot fight that way with everyone Holly would of watch minutes worth of her fights (cannot say hours as they don’t go for very long :P) to see what she did and nothing changed so she knew what was coming.
I don’t think she knew she seemed lost and then having Holly side step that take down you could see Ronda was like wtf how did that happen.
As far as I can see, the only jerky thing she did was in the pre-match weigh-in, sneakily hooking Holm’s arm then pretending she tried to hit her was a dick move.
This is the first time I had heard of either of them to be honest, I’m not really into beat-em-ups in real life.
You’ve become the Ronda Rousey of this post lol
Bunch of fucking cry babies – Stream it… watch it – stop whinging!!!
Just because you started to like the UFC recently – doesnt mean everyone has to not spoil it for you baby…
Get up early on Sunday like I’ve been doing for YEARS if you give a shit about it! This one wasnt even early! First fight was at 11:30! If you were waiting to download the torrent then SHAME ON YOU anyway!!! fucking cry babies everywhere on here!
Come on, man. If you’re going to make a point, at least try to remain a little civil.
Kotaku AU is the one place I enjoy spending time in the comments, so lets not let it go the way of almost every other comments section on the internet.
There is a sense of self entitlement exuding from this site’s comments section which just utterly pisses me off – it’s everyone else’s fault around here! no one accepts any accountability for their own actions/browsing…
Hey I’ve got nothing against *what* you said. Not at all. I’m just suggesting that you talk to people online the same way you would were you face-to-face with that person.
You catch more bees with honey, and all that jazz 😉
Oh… you must have mistaken me – im an arsehole and i speak to people like that…
Some of us are at work on a Sunday morning, and have to wait till we get home, and don’t expect to see a sports result spoiler at our favourite gaming site. Mark seems to agree and has taken it on board. Just because you can get to see an event live, doesn’t mean everyone can.
Look – too many people dont put the bloody effort in to watch it live! Thats the problem i have – half the people whinging arent working on Sunday morning – And those who are working Sunday are usually doing half days etc. – There are plenty of opportunities – i was looking after my two kids and watching bits of it in the other room when they had naps etc etc
What i didnt do was sit around on my whiny ass and blame a website for spoiling my experience in something – this occurs WAY too much these days. If you want to stay away from sports results then stay off the bloody internet!!! If it was an unprecedented result, chances are it may just be all over EVERY website – Not kotaku’s fault for reporting on one of the biggest things that happened around the world on Sunday.
Women fighting? Cant we all just get along
That’s a very misogynistic view… Maybe not intended but come on its 2015 mate
Misogyny is a hatred of women. I like women, that’s why I’m not interested in seeing them fighting.
You’re a little simple arent you…
Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, belittling of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women.
By discriminating and suggesting they shouldn’t be able to do something that men are able to you are belittling them. So a woman shouldnt fight because you like women?? It is seriously one of the most mysogynistic statements I have ever heard! Sexual discrimination, belittling along with an almost suggestive objectification of you liking women. Dude – you have a long way to come.
Jeez you’re an angry little weirdo aren’t you, starting internet fights with everyone.
Women can fight if they want, so can men. I don’t like either. It’s primitive and promotes violence outside the ring. Hence me saying ‘Why can’t we all just get along”.
UFC fighters (aka lets take steroids/HGH then beat the shit out of each other) are largely criminals and wife-beaters just like the NRL.
When women decide to take the same testosterone boosting hormones the blokes do and fight like men, I find it unappealing.
You throw out phrases like sexual discrimination when this is clearly not, you must really love that little dopamine hit you get every time you get to show everyone online how much smarter and more tolerant you are then them.
🙂
You specifically said they shouldn’t fight because you like them… It’s a bit creepy…
Generalising sports into wife beater categories is also a bit rushed… Just relax my man – you were the one being misogynistic and denying it – Sorry you don’t like being corrected im quite happy to leave you in your ignorant bubble 🙂
Just one thing though – if you did nothing wrong why are you explaining yourself to an angry little weirdo? 😀
I hope you become less offensive to women in the future is all. And maybe less offensive to angry little weirdos who are just having a discussion over semantics… Take it as an argument or a fight if you will but thats not very open to doing anything constructive in this world is it?! In life there are many people who you will disagree with – stop seeing this as a problem and start seeing it as an opportunity. You dont want to have discussions with me – no sweat mate! You’re only closing yourself off 😉
Kind regards
Come on Mark, the result shouldn’t be in the title! Atleast give people the option of avoiding a spoiler..
Edit: Cheers for changing it!
@markserrels Cant you edit the title to remove the outcome? Still spoiling it. And funnily enough this is still the only place apart from Facebook and News sites that I have seen the outcome. Grr…
Thanks @markserrels
I just came here through Facebook to tell you the title is not changed on my newsfeed. So thanks for another goddamn spoiler. I have not seen any news of this anywhere on the internet (intentionally avoiding) and this pops up on my newsfeed, and I’m pissed. You must have known you would ruin at least some people’s day by posting this title online. @markserrels
I call BS – there were about 10 news feeds spoiling the ending on my FB – and none of my friends are into the UFC at all!
If you were so keen to watch it, why didn’t you turn off your phone?
So so so many people claiming foul they have been hard done by by the internet… Chances are this is one of the first event they have even watched and have no idea who Joe Silva is for example… Cant wait for the Rousey bandwagoners to fall off already!!!
Get over yourself – Casual fans crying bloody murder because they didnt shell out to watch the event! Find another bandwagon to jump on mate
Was a good fight, rematch should be awesome. Wonders whos cursed to be next to her??
It’s kind of sad that the spoiler issue detracted from what could have been an interesting discussion about hype, or pride before a fall.
I watched this live, and Holly just looked READY. I was rooting for Rousey to win, but when the match ended, I was cheering the result. It was a dominating performance.
Holly looked awesome out there
Was there and was bloody amazing. 60k jaws dropped and hit the floor at once
It was strategically beautiful as much as it was painful to watch.
Lightly grabbing her around the waist, causing Rousey to pull away and turn in to a perfectly timed kick.
Probably in the minority here, but I really have never understood the appeal of watching people beat the living shit out of each other for money.
Whatever floats your boat I guess.
+1, upvoting doesn’t work today it seems. The most important lesson I learned at my years of martial arts training is fighting is something you do to stop someone hurting yourself or someone you care about, to keep yourself healthy, and that’s all.
It does, it just doesn’t update in real-time for you when you press it. It’s been like this for the last week or so for me. If you refresh the page, you will see your upvote has been counted.
For me at least, and this certainly won’t hold true for everyone, the “beating the shit out of each other” bit is almost beside the point. It’s just the result of the technique, the strategy, the will of the fighters that is fascinating to watch.
The best analogy I can think of is that the martial arts is the steak dinner, and the violence is the gravy. A bit of gravy can enhance a steak, but if you serve me a full bowl of the stuff it’s just disgusting.
I’ll watch skilled fighters competing all day, but I never browse YouTube for random videos of idiots smashing each other in the street, and I felt physically ill the one time I happened to actually witness genuine street violence in person.
This is also the problem that I have with movies like “Kill Bill” and “The Raid”. They’re all gravy, covering a steak that’s thin, overcooked, and difficult to swallow.
Whereas I’ve been chased through the streets by a bunch of knob ends with fence posts in their hands looking to mess me up, and the thought of watching other people hit each other irl is a massive turn off. I guess violence stops being entertaining when you’ve been on the receiving end of the real thing.
I’ve been jumped several times in my life. It has literally zero to do with how I feel about UFC and other martial arts. Stop projecting.
Yeah, fair enough. I’ve done a fair bit of martial arts training and sparring, so I’ve certainly been hit more than a few times, but no “real-world” violence experience as such. I can see how that would affect your viewpoint.
Wife and I decided to go last minute as she has recently gotten interested in Rousey (the whole powerful badass woman thing). It was an amazing fight and Holly completely deserved the win. She dominated that fight. Was great to be there to see it all happen live.
The best thing about this result is putting to bed the ridiculous discussion that Rousey would beat Mayweather in a fight.
Women’s MMA is in it’s infancy – Rousey’s place in history will be that she was a pioneer.
It doesn’t really put that to bed. Holly Holme is a well-rounded fighter, Mayweather is a pure boxer. This result doesn’t change a whole lot.
A well rounded fighter… who won by out boxing her opponent. The fight showed pretty clearly that Rousey’s standup game sucks and will get picked apart by any decent boxer. I mean how many straight lefts did she cop to the chin? She just wore them again and again with zero defense.
Mayweather is one of the fastest boxers of all time, in both foot and hand speed. He’d land a plethora of punches on her before she had half a chance of getting inside and taking him down.
Yes, it was her boxing that did the damage and won the match, but it was her total skill set that prevented her from losing on multiple occasions.
Holm got out of the clinch, stopped Rousey’s attempts to throw her, scored a takedown of her own, went to the ground with Rousey and escaped an armbar, etc. She has way more tools than I, and many others, gave her credit for.
That aside, my point isn’t to argue that Rousey would win, just that her losing to Holm doesn’t really correlate to her being unable to win a fight against a pure boxer.
That’s the beauty of hypotheticals, no-one can ever know. But the Rousey strategy of running in for a judo take down while throwing sloppy strikes wouldn’t ever hold up in any matchup I can foresee. And that’s just purely on technique, let alone physiological differences.
For me the most surprising thing of the fight was just how little stamina Rousey had. She was completely gassed after a few minutes.
Yeah, she looked pretty awkward while striking. Weird stance, almost jumping along with her feet apart.
I wasn’t sure if she gassed or if she was breathing through her mouth because her nose was busted up. In any case, getting hit while your mouth is open is all bad.
Crazy fight. Made an OK card stellar.
Well, Mayweather has form beating up women for starters.
Love Rousey, but oddly enough really enjoyed watching her get KTFO.
I think it’s the general lack of humility and poor sportsmanship that made it fun to watch her lose.
Look forward to the rematch, hopefully Rousey can learn from this
Back in my day, if you wanted to avoid sporting spoilers you didn’t read/watch the news.
This exactly… THis is all