Ronda Rousey challenged Amanda Nunes’ world title on 30 December 2016 at UFC 207 and she lost, for the second and consecutive time in her career. She is an undiscussed celebrity within MMA and UFC but, as I previously wrote about, everything changed dramatically for her when she lost her title to Holly Holm in November 2015.
There is no doubt that her first defeat had a strong effect on her image and confidence as she totally disappeared for months. There was quite a bit of speculation about whether she would ever come back and when. Finally she announced to be challenging Nunes at UFC 207, without releasing any official interviews or taking part in press conferences. The fight itself did not look too good as it lasted merely 47 seconds; Nunes managed to connect one of her powerful punches on her opponent’s face and, noticing Rousey visibly shaken, she continued with several other punches until the referee called the TKO.
A lot of interviews were released by all people with an opinion; the one I found most significant was from Nunes herself. She stated that Rousey’s strategy was completely wrong; instead of concentrating on her winning techniques like take downs and arm bars she tried a stand up strategy and could not cope with her opponent’s pressure. Nunes also blamed very strongly Rousey’s boxing coach who gave her the false illusion that she could hold her position on a striking game plan when she is a great grappler and wrestler.
We’ll see whether she is ever going to come back to UFC or even moving on to acting as many have speculated. Much of her notoriety and status as a champion opened for her possibilities of various roles in Hollywood movies but, now that is no longer the champion she used to be, perhaps many of them will dry out.
Interesting how Nunes seemingly gave Rousey some good advice. I see two here:
1/ You should have used the techniques you’re more at ease with. You’re not a boxer, you’re a grappler.
2/ Your boxing coach is an idiot, and possibly a dangerous one. Change your boxing coach, he clearly made you think you were able to challenge a striker to a stand up fight.
This makes me think: was Nunes actually looking for more than just 47 seconds in the cage with Rousey? Sounds to me that she was giving advice to her in order to motivate her into training for real, without the illusion that she can go toe to toe with someone in a striking match, but with those qualities that made her the fighter she was ?
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