K.O. Kick Heard Round the World
15 Nov, 2015
Ronda Rousey was the UFC’s unstoppable force until Holly Holm used the former champion’s aggression against her to produce one of the sport’s biggest upsets.
Rousey chased Holm around the ring at UFC 193 on Sunday – looking for the right hold and taking head shots along the way – until Holm saw an opening 59 seconds into the second round and snapped a kick to the head that immediately dropped her more fancied opponent to the canvas.
Holm (10-0) jumped on the prone Rousey, delivering several blows to her head before the referee intervened, ending Rousey’s 12-fight unbeaten run and handing Holm the bantamweight title.
An ecstatic Holm jumped around the ring while Rousey stayed on the canvas as she received medical treatment amid the roar of a stunned, record UFC crowd.
“She’s won a lot of fights and imposed her will on a lot of fighters,” Holm said. “So I expected her to be aggressive and impose her will on me.
“She had me on the cage for a minute and obviously she was trying in for a take down right there … she had a lot of things she was trying so I’m just glad I put in the practice,” she added.
Rousey, a former judo Olympian, was unbeaten through 12 UFC fights before meeting Holm, and a win would have been her seventh title defense. Instead, Holm, a 34-year-old veteran female boxer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has the championship belt.
“We figured her aggression was coming, if it didn’t that’s OK, but with footwork and my career we figured she wouldn’t give me that space,” Holm said. “There’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears but it was all worth it.”
Rousey left the stadium to receive treatment for concussion and facial cuts at a nearby hospital after the loss and skipped the post-fight media conference.
“She was transported (to hospital) because she got knocked out,” UFC chief Dana White said. “Obviously she’s completely bummed out and depressed.”
Holm, a former undisputed welterweight boxing champion, said the moment of her UFC title victory was “one of those moments that you live for.”
AP
Image UFC 193 Screenshot
Mentioned In This Post:
