Brydon on Strikeforce: Pretty impressive
Posted March 4, 2012 3:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It all went according to plan for (Rowdy) Ronda Rousey. It just took a little bit longer.
Not much longer.
While Rousey couldn’t quite get the armbar within one minute, the Olympic judo bronze medalist eventually got the submission she was looking for, and it was nasty.
Considering the bad blood between the two female fighters coming into the fight, Miesha (Takedown) Tate really didn’t want to tap when her arm got caught and cranked backward with half a minute left in the opening frame. But once her limb was bent the opposite way from what is natural, she had no choice. The arm was toast. And Rousey was the new queen of MMA.
Rousey improved to 5-0 in mixed martial arts — all of her previous wins had come from an armbar inside the first 60 seconds.
However, despite the fact that she won yet again in the exact same fashion — make it eight, as she also won her three amateur bouts by first-minute armbar — Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio, in the main event of Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey, the new women’s bantamweight champion showed that she is more than a one-trick pony. She was made to work hard for this win.
Tate, who had said coming into the bout that Rousey’s inexperience in MMA would be her downfall especially after she would taste her punches, came out aggressively right from the opening bell with a flurry of strikes. But Rousey kept her ground and soon got Tate to the mat.
As the two grappled, Rousey passed Tate’s guard and got hold of her arm and wrapped her legs on her body and was going for the armbar. It was uncanny as it seemed she was going to get the same finish again right inside the first minute, especially when it appeared she might have dislocated Tate’s elbow.
But Rousey didn’t quite have the leverage on Tate’s body to keep her on her back so Tate was able to roll toward Rousey and alleviate the pressure. Tate managed to wiggle out and get back to her feet.
Rousey was slightly stunned by one of Tate’s punches, but it didn’t slow her down. They clinched and Rousey soon displayed her touted judo game with a nice hip toss, got into full mount with about a minute left, and worked some ground and pound.
With Tate covering up, Rousey turned her around and got full leverage with her legs and grabbed Tate’s left arm again. Tate couldn’t hold on and Rousey extended it fully. Second time was a charm.
Rousey jumped up and was very emotional, dedicating the win to her late father.
The replay was shown multiple times on the broadcast, as well as in slow motion, drawing cringe-inducing reactions.
In addition to the brutal finish, Rousey had the edge in the fight in almost all areas.
According to FightMetric, she had the higher tally in total strikes (43-11) (the majority of them on the ground) and connected at a much higher percentage. She was also 3-for-3 getting Tate to the mat, but was just 1-of-2 in “Takedowns”. Rousey had a reversal, a full mount and passed Tate’s guard four times.
Tate said afterward her arm was a little sore but she had to give credit to the new champ and respected her as a fighter. Meanwhile, Rousey said Tate was tougher than she thought but didn’t feel bad for her arm.
Rousey has taken a lot of heat for some of her comments and her attitude — she said post-fight she couldn’t respect Tate after she claimed Rousey should be fined for headbutting her during their stare down at the weigh-ins. But Tate was the one who initiated the forehead contact, so her claim was a little disingenuous.
Rousey will likely face Victoria, B.C.’s Sarah Kaufman next, who was a winner earlier in the night over fellow Canadian Alexis Davis in a bloody, three-round slugfest.
“I know she thinks she got robbed out of the title shot, so I think it’s the right thing to do to give her the next one,” said Rousey, who was mindful of the fact that her comments likely propelled her into the title bout ahead of a former champion. I give her credit for that.
Kaufman, who earlier called out whoever was to win in the title fight — “I’m coming after my belt” — was shown on the TV smiling at the prospect of getting a shot at Rousey. I’m not sure there wasn’t also a little fear showing.
Kaufman’s last loss was by armbar to Dutch Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Marloes Coenen, when she was caught in bottom guard. While there was no danger of Coenen ripping her arm off on that night, you can’t say the same about Rousey.
Heading into Saturday’s bout, Tate said “wrestling trumps judo nine times out of 10,” while Rousey claimed “no high school wrestler could beat a judo player.”
At least on this night, Rousey was right.
NOT EXACTLY PUNK’D
Former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson returned after being off for just over 14 months to win a decision over K.J. Noons and ostensibly earn him a rubber match against current champion Gilbert Melendez, who he beat to become title-holder initially only to lose the rematch.
However, it was a pretty lackluster victory, and he admitted it.
“My fight was s—,” he said post-fight. “I tried something different because I always getting hurt. But I got (a) staph (infection) twice in the training camp, so I couldn’t train, so my conditioning was s—.”
Thomson landed takedowns almost at will against Noons but he’ll need to step up his game if he does get to face Melendez next. Not sure if a one-fight win streak and his performance on Saturday will be enough to earn him that title match right away. But really what else is there for Strikeforce to offer fans at 155 pounds than the trilogy bout?
At least Thomson promises to do better.
“I’m going to go back to the way I used to train and if I get hurt, I get hurt. I’ll go hard, super aggressive for 12 weeks and I’ll make sure that I’ll whoop Gilbert’s ass.”
FOLLOWING IN HIS FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS
In the first fight of the night, Ryan Couture, the son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, was a winner in the same place that his father was five years ago to the day. At UFC 68 on March 3, 2007, “The Natural” came out of a year retirement and defeated heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia to capture the title for a record third time.
On Saturday, the young Couture displayed a great mixture of jiu-jitsu and ground-and-pound, putting an end to Conor Heun’s night with a third-round TKO. It was his first stoppage by knockout and his second straight win to improve to 4-1 as a pro. This kid continues to make his dad proud and could be a real force one day.
A champion? It might be too early to say.
WE HAVE A FINALE DATE, FINALLY: Strikeforce has set a date for the heavyweight Grand Prix tournament final. Josh Barnett will face Daniel Cormier on May 19 with location to be decided. The tourney began with quarter-finals in February 2011.
