Ronda Rousey Invincible No More After Holly Holm Fight

ronda rousey invincible no more 2015 mma image ufc

ronda rousey invincible no more 2015 mma image ufcIt was a hell of a ride fight fans. It is now over, though. So back to reality. Ronda Rousey has been beaten by Holly Holm in nasty fashion.

Knocked the fuck Out!

Shock was the trending keyword on social media after Rousey’s lights went out and Holly Holm walked out of the Octagon with the gold belt that used to be owned by the Rowdiest female fighter we had ever seen.

I feel for the naive sports fans that could not have seen this coming. Young MMA fans had to be especially devastated by the so called “invincible” Ronda Rousey losing. I am certain all the hardcore Rousey fans thought their champion would retire undefeated.

Count me among the Rousey fans. I’m just old enough to know better than believe she could ever escape defeat long term.

No matter how dominating she had been up until she faced former world boxing champion Holly Holm in Australia, I knew she was subject to a loss. That’s what happens in the fight game.

No matter how powerful the persona of Rousey, she was not a god. As impressive as she was in interviews or how scary her stare was on her walk to the Octagon, she was a mere mortal.

Holly Holm exposed the fact that Rousey was a mere human with a round and a half of punches to the beautiful face of Rousey. The challenger then turned the lights out on the champ’s undefeated record and insane title run with a kick to the head.

Fight over, invincibility gone.

Gone too is the mystique surrounding Rousey. Holm has done to her what Buster Douglas did to Iron Mike Tyson back in the day. After Tyson was knocked out in Tokyo by the 42-1 underdog, Iron Mike was no longer able to win fights before he even got to the ring. The fear factor was erased, and he had to actually beat his opponents with his skills. The mental edge was gone.

After UFC 193, every fighter in the UFC Bantamweight division gained tons of confidence. Sure, these ladies believed they could knock off Rousey if given the title shot (even the ones already beaten by Rowdy). But Holm provided video evidence that it could be done. Rousey, like Tyson, just lost the immense mental edge going into every fight. She is human, and everyone sees it now.

The pre-fight build up barely mentioned Holly Holm, a clue to me that this could be the end of Rousey’s run. I’m a big Joe Rogan guy, but “he is the greatest hype machine for the fight game in the history of spoken word!”

Rogan built up Rousey to be a “once ever” athlete and put her above other female athletes who have dominated different sports for much longer than Rousey’s three and a half years as a pro fighter.

Ronda Rousey may well be a “once ever” athlete. Still, she had to win each fight on an individual basis. That meant avoiding injury during a fight, cuts that could stop a battle, getting caught in a submission hold, and, of course, eluding a blow to the head that rendered her unconscious.

That task was too much for Rousey, just as it was for the greatest male MMA fighter ever, Anderson Silva.

For all their skill, talent, and toughness, even the greatest champions in the fight game are not invincible. That’s what made boxing great and now makes MMA action so interesting. Every competitor has a puncher’s chance.

I can only hope that Rousey didn’t let her fame go to her head. If that’s the case, then the loss is even more disappointing in my eyes. If she let movie roles and everyone telling her how great she was to be her downfall, then that’s almost tragic.

Once again, she is only human. It’s hard to keep yourself grounded when you’re flying as high as Rousey is……or was.

Rousey made an interesting comment about how Holm probably would be unable to handle a “champion’s lifestyle.” Thinking that far ahead of the actual fight inside a cage is telling. Maybe Rousey was just filling up time during the weeks’ worth of pre-fight build up, but I’m confident she really thought Holm couldn’t handle what Rousey has to go through on a daily basis.

That was very flawed thinking. It matters not if Holly Holm hates the fame that comes with being the UFC’s Bantamweight Champion. If Holm is a boring interview compared to Rousey, so what?

Holly Holm doesn’t have to match what Ronda Rousey did outside the Octagon. She only needed to handle her business inside that steel cage. Holm did just that.

Now Rousey has to worry about getting her belt back, not whether Holm would want a champion’s lifestyle. We’ll see just how Holm handles herself as the champ going forward. After seeing how she dominated Rousey last night, I have little doubt she can carry the weight that comes with the belt.

Of course, we’ve not seen the last of Ronda Rousey. Dana White, who after the fight looked like someone just ran over his dog, was talking about a quick rematch. These two ladies are going to get it on again in the near future.

When Holm v. Rousey II takes place, fans will get to watch without the illusion of one fighter being invincible. The two MMA artists will be on more equal ground. Both human, both beatable.

Holly Holm will have the mental edge, of course, having stripped away the facade of invincibility from Ronda Rousey.