It’s fascinating how things can change in a matter of hours.
Before Ronda Rousey made her way to the cage on Nov. 15 in front of 56,214 fans at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, the chatter was all about how swiftly the women’s bantamweight champion would dispatch of her latest opponent at UFC 193. Cell phones were raised in the air as fans hoped to cram Rousey’s latest victory in an Instagram video, while the people watching at home got right with their Vine and GIF games so they could be the first to push the clip to social media.
The furthest thing from anyone’s mind was Rousey losing to underdog contender Holly Holm, who had underwhelmed in decision victories over Raquel Pennington and Marion Reneau. When Rousey crashed to the canvas in a heap after a violent Holm head kick, the immediate reaction was shock and awe. The subsequent action was filled with revisionist history.
All of a sudden, everyone knew that Rousey was going to lose to Holm.
In a flash, Rousey went from being debated as being a pound-for-pound great to being an unskilled bum who fought a bunch of tomato cans before running into the monster known as Holm. Never mind that Rousey had annihilated every top contender placed in front of her and avoided decisions like the plague. None of that mattered because she was never that good in the first place, right?
It’s truly amazing how people prey on the failure of the greats and have selective amnesia when it comes to someone’s accomplishments after they lose.
Let’s be honest with ourselves: nobody really thought Holm stood a chance. Even though her boxing pedigree presented a unique set of skills which Rousey had yet to face, nothing about Holm’s previous UFC fights suggested she would step into the Octagon and tear the “Rowdy” one to shreds. If Rousey was criticized for fighting nobodies, then what do you call the opponents Holm had faced in the UFC, against whom she couldn’t earn a stoppage? Pennington and Reneau weren’t world-beaters by any stretch of the imagination.
Nevertheless, this is the game people play when the underdog wins and the bandwagon needs to hitch a trailer for all of the new passengers. Meanwhile, the person who accomplished so much for women’s MMA -- and is the reason why the UFC added a women’s division in the first place -- is treated like garbage.
Making matters worse are the casual fans who happened to tune in Saturday and now speak as if they know everything about mixed martial arts. It’s an insult to every real MMA fan out there when someone who doesn’t know a gogoplata from a go-go dancer suggests that they knew Rousey would lose. The same goes for the boxing community, as the same people who generally despise MMA waved their pom-poms to celebrate boxing’s victory over MMA, as if Randy Couture versus James Toney never happened.
It’s never fun when a casual fan flips a coin, gets it right and then acts like they know more than those who have actually watched MMA for years, but that’s the way it goes when you’re on top. Rousey went from darling to devil to dunce in rapid fashion. It’s OK to be happy that she lost; just don’t act like it was inevitable.
It’s sickening to watch, honestly. You don’t have to like Rousey, but to completely discredit what she has accomplished is downright erroneous. What happened on Saturday night was a combination of Holm’s preparation and masterful game-planning by Coach Mike Winkeljohn that showcased his fighter’s strengths while exposing Rousey’s weaknesses. More surprising than Holm’s dismantling of Rousey on the feet was the fact that the former boxer, whose ground game has always been suspect, was able to prevent the judoka from scoring her signature armbar submission. That’s something nobody saw coming.
Holm was brilliant in Melbourne, and there is no taking anything away from her performance. It’s just absurd to see the Rousey bandwagon empty so quickly. Everybody loves a winner, but that shouldn’t mean forgetting about the loser. If Rousey manages to redeem herself in the inevitable rematch, those who abandoned will be clamoring to get back on board. Hopefully, Rousey will unhitch the wagon so fair-weather fans are denied entry.