As Willie Nelson famously sang, “turn out the lights, the party’s over.” In this case the party is Ronda Rousey’s MMA career due to her devastating beat down recently by Amanda Nunes in UFC 207.
Rousey’s second loss in such dramatic fashion has exposed her weakness as a one dimensional fighter. This actually comes as a surprise since her punishing defeat at the hands of Holly Holms should have been a wakeup call for her and her trainers to adapt and strengthen Ronda’s standup technique.
Instead, she appeared slow, stationary, and unsure of what to do. As the former bantamweight UFC champion, Rousey was hyped by the media as a darling of the ring for her personality and looks as much as she was for her grappling skills which earned her 12 consecutive wins and a championship. Most anyone would consider that a successful career however, while other fighters adapted to her fighting style, Rousey remained hindered by her heavy reliance on winning by submission instead of the TKO.
All of the blame shouldn’t be cast at Ronda’s feet however. Certainly her coaches and trainers share an equal amount of culpability for failing to recognize the glaring weakness in her fighting style. The best pugilistic athletes are able to adapt to different opponents, thereby, remaining at the top of their profession. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Ronda Rousey is going to be able to make that adjustment based on the trouncing she endured from the current champ Amanda Nunes.
It is unfortunate that she seems to have lost the fire but no one would think the less of her if she retired from the ring and moved on to the next phase of her career.
By Dr. Vincent K. Ramsey
Dr. Vincent K. Ramsey, is the Chair of Sports Exercise Science at the United States Sports Academy, and can be reached at vramsey@ussa.edu.