With one left-foot kick to the head of Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm sprung one of the biggest upsets in mixed martial arts history in Melbourne yesterday.
The previously undefeated Rousey — one of the biggest names in world sport, and a Hollywood star to boot — crashed to the floor and Holm leapt on her, clubbing her with powerful left-hand blows.
Referee Herb Dean immediately stopped the fight with Rousey seeing stars and the record crowd of 56,214 at Etihad Stadium hailed a new women’s Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight champion.
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| Holly Holm lands a kick to the neck to knock out Ronda Rousey and win the UFC title fight in Melbourne. |
The only real moment of joy for Rousey was a solid right to Holm’s cheek that sent her opponent’s mouthguard spiralling to the floor.
The Olympic judo medallist went into the first break looking shaky, with her face flushed from the volley of blows from Holm.
The bout was mostly fought on the favourite terrain of Holm, a former boxing and kickboxing champion.
Standing toe to toe, the fighters traded punches, with Holm not allowing Rousey to take her to the floor where she could take advantage of her superior grappling skills.
Holm appeared almost surprised when she was acclaimed the winner with her groggy opponent still on the floor and sports scribes thumbing the program for information on the Albuquerque woman dubbed The Preacher’s Daughter.
“I don’t know ... I’m trying to take it in ... it’s crazy, isn’t it?” Holm told ring announcer Joe Rogan to roars from the crowd. The win made her to the first woman to win world titles in both boxing and UFC.
Immediately after the bout, Rousey, who has become the female face of UFC, was sent to hospital in Melbourne for observation. UFC chief Dana White said Rousey was conscious and speaking but had been knocked out and needed treatment for a split lip.
While it was the first taste of defeat for Rousey, who has served as a valuable bridge towards mainstream appeal for UFC, the dominant mixed martial arts franchise now has another fearsome female athlete on its hands.
Holm — who said she wanted to win so badly she had taken to crying in her car after poor training sessions — revealed she had gone over in her mind making the crucial kick that floored Rousey and sealed her victory.
“These are the moments we live for. I can’t tell you how many times I cried in the lead-up to this fight,’’ she said. “I visualised if the head kick was there, I would go for. If it was there, I wanted to take it.”
The crowd at Etihad eclipsed the modest turnout for Anthony Mundine’s boxing superwelterweight title fight loss to Charles Hartley in Melbourne just five days ago, indicating a changing of the guard in the popularity of combat sports.
If the youthful spectators at Etihad were disappointed by the defeat of the champion Rousey, sent out at $1.13 favourite, they didn’t show it, with strong cheers for Holm’s upset win and appreciation of a job well done.
They had had an Australian, Robert Whittaker, and an adopted Australian in Kiwi Mark Hunt win earlier in the day and were treated to a thrilling five-round exhibition from Poland’s Joanna Jedrezejczyk in her win over Valerie La Tourneau in the strawweight world championship held immediately before the Rousey-Holm clash.
The two elfin females ferociously traded punches and kicks over five rounds, ending in a comfortable points decision for the Pole, who retained her belt.
The Rousey-Holm fight, which beat the previous record attendance of 55,000, was watched by an estimated one million cable viewers in the US paying $50 for the clash on pay-per view.
The win — described by Rogan as the biggest upset in the history of the sport — gives Holm a perfect 10-0 record in UFC and sees Rousey add one defeat to her 12 victories.
Although the downing of Rousey may be seen as a blow to the sport, its future in Australia seems to be on the rise with the fourth staging of a UFC event here eclipsing the sub-20,000 crowds of previous shows.
Several years after vowing women would not fight in UFC, White’s decision to reverse his own view on that appears to be paying dividends. There was a reasonable proportion of women in the crowd, which was notable also for its comparative youth.
UFC unashamedly aims itself at men in the 18 to 34 demographic, who are keenly sought after by marketers.
Expanding the UFC to include females and taking the spectacle on the road has helped to off-set plateauing interest in the US. Jockey Michelle Payne, who made history in winning the Melbourne Cup and attracted the interest of Rousey and the other female fighters, was at yesterday’s fight along with boxers Jeff Fenech and Danny Green.
There was no shortage of neck and sleeve tattoos and swaggering muscle-bound fight fans at Etihad, but the diversity of the crowd showed UFC has broader cross-sectional appeal than boxing does.
White paid tribute to the support the event got in Australia and revealed that UFC would return here in March for an event in Brisbane as he said critics of UFC simply “did not understand the sport”. Nor did he rule out a rematch between Holm and Rousey.
Holm said her opponent deserved another shot and she would be up for it.
