Ronda Rousey knocked out by Holly Holm in staggering UFC upset
Ronda Rousey at a press conference on October 27, 2015 in Glendale, California.
Holly Holm convincingly knocked out the heavily favored Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 on Saturday night, taking down the most dominant figure in combat sports with a second-round
head kick that caught the previously undefeated mixed martial arts fighter — who was already dazed and bloodied from a vicious first-round beating — in the neck.
"I don't know! I'm trying to take it in but it's crazy!" the New Mexico native said through tears immediately after the fight. "I had so much love and support — I just thought how can I not do this with all that support?" she added.
"I'm going to call this the greatest upset in UFC history," color commentator Joe Rogan said. "She fought a perfect fight."
Holm easily beat Rousey in Round 1, bloodying her face with stiff left hands and oblique leg-kicks that slashed through Rousey's furious frontal attacks. Rousey got in one takedown — her signature early move — but Holm wiggled out, caught Rousey with a stinging punch to the face and dominated the rest of the round.
But it was the beginning of Round 2 that was the end of Rousey's perfect 12-0 record. Rousey, still reeling and bloodied from the first-round beating, took a number of stiff punches and kicks — most to the face — as she tried to chase Holm around the ring before Holm's swinging left leg caught Rousey upside the neck and sent her to the mat:
The Rousey knockout #UFC193 https://t.co/x3VVB5yud1
— viral vines (@viralvines) November 15, 2015
Holm fell to the mat with Rousey to deliver a flurry of hammer punches to the face, but by then she was beating an utterly defeated champion. The fight was quickly called, and Holm was given the UFC bantamweight belt that Rousey has possessed for years.
Holly Holm, moments after her stunning defeat of Ronda Rousey.
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