How it all went wrong for Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey

This question originally appeared on Quora. 

Answer by Dirk Hooper, MMA Cage Photographer, Host of Ultimate Force MMA, on Quora:

Ronda Rousey tasted defeat by the hands (and feet) of Holly Holm for the same reason many other fighters have been humbled; when you're on top there's only one way to go.

The fact is that Ronda Rousey was never in the fight. Long before the head kick that eventually flattened her, Holly Holm had dominated her in every conceivable way. The eventual outcome was foretold before the bell for the second round.

There are a number of contributing factors in Rousey's defeat. Here's what she brought to the fight.

 

Bad Game Plan


Rousey's previous match was with Bethe Corriea, a fighter who was known for her striking prowess. Rousey beat Corriea, quickly, by knocking her out. Rousey is not known for her standup game -- she's mostly revered for her judo. The statement she made with the win over Corriea clearly led to the game plan with Holm.

Rousey put too much faith in her ability to counter Holm's boxing by closing the distance and swarming her with power and chaos. Her game plan was to stand toe-to-toe with a seasoned boxer.



 

Mentally Unfocused

Prior to the match Rousey shared this with "The Guardian":
 

“The most uncomfortable scenario is that I’m the best and I have the most pressure. It’s like the pressure from a bullet shoots me out of the gun. My fear of failure is larger than anyone else’s, and it’s increasing with every single fight. I don’t shy away from it. I am extremely fearful but I don’t have a single doubt in my mind [when it comes to winning].”


It's not easy to get mentally prepared for every match, particularly when you dominate every opponent.

Rousey also looked increasingly frustrated as the match progressed. She's used to imposing her will on opponents and when that didn't happen, instead of finding her center and recomposing, she got more desperate.

 

Poor Conditioning

Whether it was bad conditioning, or a broken nose, Rousey was breathing through her mouth early. She didn't look as hard as she usually does in the octagon, and a day earlier at the weigh-in she looked emaciated.

Physically, she didn't look ready.

 

Lack of Respect

Maybe it was Rousey's love of professional wrestling and her desire to play "The Heel." Perhaps it was her desire to find something to build herself up for the fight. Or...it could have been hubris. Either way, her lack of respect for Holly Holm manifested in an awkward weigh-in staredown, and not touching gloves before the match.

That could be expected with Miesha Tate, who Rousey loathes, but not with Holly Holm.

That lack of respect could have translated into underestimating the experience and abilities of Holm.



 

Weak Coaching

Ronda Rousey's mother (a gold-winning Judo champion) publically called-out coach Edmond Tarverdyan prior to the match. Her primary problem with Tarverdyan was what she saw as his disrespect for women, but she also said,

"People actually do worse, but he keeps telling them how great they are, how great they're doing and they stay there. It's pathetic."
During the break after the first round, it was Tarverdyan that was telling Rousey that she did "great," which couldn't be further from the truth. She needed some serious help from her coach and it wasn't there.

Ali Abdelaziz, the senior Vice President of the World Series of Fighting, himself a five-time national champion of judo, knows both Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm well. He has been highly critical of Rousey's coaching team.
"Ronda made all the other girls look like amateurs, because she was so much of a better athlete than them. But Holly was in this sport for a long time and she was training with all the guys down there at Jackson's, every one of them. That made her better. Plus, she had the advantage when it came to coaching. It wasn't even close.

Holly walked into that cage on Saturday with an army, having Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn with her. Ronda came in very much alone."

There was additional stress on Rousey during her camp, including an altercation with her ex-boyfriend and the attention of dating UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, not to mention appearances on "Ellen," a ceremony in Venice with a Rousey mural and her burgeoning movie career.


The Avalanche of Praise

In September of 2015 Ronda Rousey was voted "The Best Female Athlete of All Time" by ESPN fans.

UFC color commentator Joe Rogan said, "Once in a lifetime doesn't apply to Ronda Rousey. It's once ever in human history."

She is the highest paid athlete on the UFC, male or female. 

All of that adulation does two things: it gives a fighter a false sense of invulnerability, and it withers your resolve to step into the cage and prove yourself time after time.

 

Holly Holm:

Let's give some much deserved credit to Holly Holm. She did everything right to upset Ronda Rousey.

 

Fantastic Conditioning and Game Plan

Holm, and her team of Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn had the perfect game plan to defeat Ronda Rousey and it started with an intensive laser-focused training camp.

After the match Holly Holm said,

“I’m trying to take it in, but it’s crazy. Getting in here, I had so much love and support. I felt like, how can I not do this with all that love. I had the best coaching, from standup to grappling to wrestling.

Everything that we worked on presented itself in the fight. I haven’t spent this much time in the gym in my life. Everything we worked on happened tonight.”


Holm stuffed several attempts at a judo hip toss, and countered Rousey's arm-bar attack. That's something we haven't seen often, and Holm shut it down cold. Only an insane level of training could have countered Rousey's exceptional judo skills.

Abdelaziz said,

"Holly Holm was sparring with Carlos Condit [the former UFC interim welterweight champion] and a bunch of tough Russian guys. She brought a judo guy in. She was prepared the way someone fighting for the world title should be prepared."

 

Hunger and Experience

Despite the fact that Holm is known mostly for boxing, she's been training in kickboxing and MMA since early in her career. Her experience in the ring and the octagon resulted in a very cool demeanor, even when she taking solid shots from Rousey and got trapped in her mythical arm-bar.

Holm just stayed calm and stuck with the game plan.

Hunger is something hard to quantify but every great fighter has to maintain a deep desire to get to the top, and to stay there. If you look at the fight, it was very clear who had the hunger and who didn't.



 

Innately Good Matchup

Holm is an exceptionally experienced boxer, named Female Boxer of the Year twice by "Ring Magazine." Her training as a boxer kept Rousey at a distance and frustrated her early.

Holly Holm is also taller than Rousey, which again helped keep her out of range, and negated some of Rousey's physical advantages.

. . .

Ultimately, Ronda Rousey suffered from the same malady that brought down Anderson Silva. She had too much success and either got careless or soft.

Rousey's game plan was tired and it played right into Holm's strategy. Rousey was too distracted by outside forces and didn't have the right team to help her prepare beforehand or react to Holm in the fight. Rousey's wins came too easy and was praised too much.

If Ronda Rousey finds a new training team, and re-focuses on her MMA career she's going to be more dangerous than ever. A newly-motivated "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey is going to be a force of nature.

The result of the fight is a cautionary tale for fighters, or anyone else on the top of the mountain. You must continue to have the hunger, innovation, and drive to succeed or you're going to get knocked off the summit by someone else who does.
Author(s)