Rousey vs. McMann, predictions?

Megumi Fujii (before she retired) and Claudia Gadelha to name just a couple.

 

Gadelha is awesome, but I don't think you see the kind of absurd mismatch you do with Rousey. That might be due to the more patient nature of BJJ compared to Judo, but Rousey has repeatedly shown grapplers who are considered good to be pretty mediocre.

 

Holly Holm is an awesome prospect, but so far her record is meh. She needs to sign with the UFC or at least with Invicta so she can get away from the journey(wo)men and tomato cans she's been getting matched up with.

 

I don't think manhandled is accurate. They were going blow for blow. Ronda tried to throw her a few times and failed. Right up until the liver shot that fight was dead even.

 

This is exactly how I feel, almost word for word.

 

Rousey was well in control of that clinch.

 

First let me start by saying that I am staying out of the conversation about Rousey's personality. One of the lessons I learned growing up in a violent environment is that the "good guy" only wins if they train and study. That said, let me expand on this a bit.

I have gone back and re-watched this fight now about a dozen times.

We are talking about an extremely brief fight, that ended because of a lucky critical shot. People knee each other in the body all the time in MMA. People getting "knocked out" because of it is extremely rare. Which is another reason I think people chalking that up to Rousey's "skill" is silly. They were both hitting each other with knees when Rousey got a lucky hit.

Lets take it from the start.

First exchange is punches.

Rousey does a jab to the body, tries a couple of other punches that Sara answers with overhand rights and hooks.

Rousey moves to clinch with her, gets one knee. She turns her hips for a throw and Sara stops her with footwork.

The clinch exchange continues. McMann keeps rising out of the clinch for heavy punches, many of which connect. Ronda tries to turn her hip for another throw which is stopped by footwork by McMann. Scoring a couple of more punches.

Rousey eventually moves the two of them towards the cage. McMann scores a Knee. Rousey throws one in return. The two continue to fight for upper body control.

Sara scores two more knees to Ronda's midsection while still in the clinch. The second one not as solid as the first.

Ronda goes for a knee that is largely blocked by McMann's right hand.

Ronda scores a weak right hook and McMann answers with a powerful right cross that hits Ronda so hard it knocks her back a couple of steps and out of the clinch.

Sara moves towards Ronda and hits a straight left and a solid right hook.

Ronda pulls clinch again and goes for a right knee that lands. And another as they move back to the cage.

Both women still in the clinch exchange a knee for a knee.

Ronda starts to try and position McMann for a throw again, and fails because Sara moves her weight out of reach. (The commentators comment on this as well, lowering her center of gravity.)

Ronda goes for a left knee and connects. Sara goes for another overhand right but misses.

The two are again in the clinch. Sara blocks a knee. The two go for position again. Ronda finally scores the liver shot and Sara drops down. Herb Dean begins running over to stop the fight instantly.

Ronda throws some absolutely useless right punches with no power whatsoever into McMann's head, and Sara starts to rise. Herb ends the fight and Sara looks up at him confused.

Now maybe you guys consider "dominating the clinch" a bit differently then I do. Sara was not making an effort to get out of the clinch and my assessment is that she saw no reason to. Most of her counters were landing. She got several unanswered and powerful hooks and overhand rights while in the clinch, Ronda failed at every throw attempt. Yes, she got kneed but she also kneed Ronda frequently herself.

The damage inflicted aside from the Liver shot was completely in Sara's favor. Ronda's punches were terrible. Sara's were powerful.

I think Van's analogy of Silva breaking his leg on Wiedman is a good one. Yes, she got a good liver shot, but as I pointed out, people knee each other constantly in the body to a small but cumulative effect. To say Ronda went in there specifically to attack the liver and just did it as if it was her plan all along means that she failed about ten times before she ever succeeded in doing so. While taking a great deal of punishment and failing in her attempts at Judo throws.

Absent that liver shot, I feel this fight was even so far as number of shots with McMann's striking inflicting more damage.

If this fight happened again and Ronda didn't get lucky with the liver shot this fight would of eventually turned in Sara's favor. Those punches to the face were having an effect that would of been much more as the rounds progressed. And I don't feel Ronda was going to take her down at all.

 

of course you dont, because you dont like ronda and are letting that colour your view lol

one of the fighters spent the majority of clinch session with her back up against the cage constantly defending, said fighter was always on the wrong side of head control so couldnt get any power in her knees and simply lifted them up and was always defending the tie ups because the other fighter was constantly getting superior position ie single and double underhooks, leaving herself open to the knee which finished her

and said fighter wasnt rhonda

 

Since no one else is using spoiler tags...

The primary concern of the referees is the safety of the fighters. Yes fights have been stopped early. But some have also been stopped late. I'd rather see an early stoppage than a late one, and I don't think this one was late.

You mention your kids, how disappointed would you be if there was a late stoppage in one of their matches?

 

Fixed that for you

 

cheers but it didnt need fixing, the knee finished her (the way she folded and collapsed onto her face sort of gives that away) Herb simply looked after a prone fighter who had collapsed and wasnt defending herself :Angel:
But hey dont let the facts get in the way of your prejudice

 

McMann was effectively KO'd in that she was unable to even cover her head with her hand. It is the referee's job to stop the fight the second a fighter is unable to defend themselves.

Would anyone think it was an early stoppage if it had been a knee to the head and McMann had been unconscious for a couple of seconds? Should the referee have given her time to come round? Maybe the next shot would have brought her back to her senses and she could have fought on.

 

You mean that other good stoppage he gets crap for.

I don't listen to the bitching of fans, because the fans would love nothing more for a fighter to get killed in the ring for their entertainment - yeah, I said it. I expect a bit more sense from people on these boards though.

 

Nope, but then this is thing What Works?, me and most other people who called it a premature stoppage have been saying all along: McMann wasn't unconscious, Ronda's weak ass punches didn't put her (McMann) in danger and she (McMann) had recovered and was getting to her feet as Dean (prematurely) stopped the fight. If McMann was unconscious I'd wouldn't have a word to say about the result other than "Well done."

 

If you are on the canvas unable to move to protect yourself, you are done and the referee needs to stop the fight.

Herb Dean committed to the stoppage before McMann started to get up. He can't wave Rousey off and then, seeing McMann get up say 'Oh right, carry on'. Getting up is easy once your opponent is halfway across the ring celebrating the win.

 

I would say at the time when Herb was stepping in, he believed she wasn't getting up. McMann got up just as he stepped in. So I would say its a very very close call.

 

If people don't want their fights to stop then they need to stop flopping to the canvas and doing nothing.
A ref will stop the fight when that happens.
Don't do that and the fight goes on.
As I said...I have no problem with Rousey being allowed a few ore seconds to get good postion and throw some bombs.
People have recovered from worse things and gone on to win.
But that aside the fight being stopped was all on McMann IMHO.
You flop, you stop. (new catch phrase there!)