Down goes Rousey: “Rowdy” famously humbled by Holm in first loss, her next match is crucial

RYAN HERRING, Sports Columnist

Rolling Stone has described Ronda Rousey as “The Most Dangerous Woman.”

“She’s a beast, man,” said UFC president Dana White about Rousey. “She’s the greatest athlete I’ve ever worked with. With her, it’s like the Tyson era, like, how fast is she gonna destroy somebody, and in what manner? Ronda’s one in a million.”

To top it all off, she was recently named “the most dominant athlete alive” by Business Insider. All of this respect was rightfully earned. Heading into her fight this last Saturday, she held a 12-0 record, with a majority of her fights ending in less than 60 seconds.

Before getting into mixed martial arts, she was in competitive Judo where she won gold medals back-to-back years in the Pan American Championships and received a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics. Now she is the face of the UFC.

She is on the cover of numerous magazines, has starred in major motion pictures and commercials; has modelled, made appearances on nearly every talk show imaginable and is known for bringing a whole new meaning to “girl power.” Needless to say, she has done a lot for the sport, making it bigger than it has ever been.

Rousey’s dominance has gotten to the level where it almost seemed pointless for anyone to even fight her, because she was just too good. Well, I’m sure you’ve all heard by now Rousey’s incredible run came to an end in amazing fashion as she was knocked out by Holly Holm.

Ronda was a 20-to-1 favorite heading into the fight. Meaning that if you bet $100 on Rousey and she won, you would win a measly $5. So there was a lot of broken wallets after the huge upset.

The odds against Holm were nothing personal; it was due to the fact that Rousey seemed invincible. Holm now holds a 10-0 record, with seven of her 10 wins coming from knockout. She is a former boxing champion and has prior experience in kickboxing.

On the night of the fight, her powerful blows were too much for Ronda to handle. The fight ended 59 seconds into the second round by knockout after Holm landed a clean left head kick to Rousey’s jawline.

Rousey eerily predicted the outcome of the fight on the “Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” about a month ago.

“[Holm] is the type of fighter that you have to be very, very patient with,” said Rousey. “I feel like she’s gonna try and, like, keep distance and keep far away from me and get me frustrated until a point I’ll make a mistake and she can try and kick me in the head. But it’s not going to go like that.”

Unfortunately  that’s exactly how it went.

Is Holm the new Queen of the UFC? Will Ronda receive revenge in a rematch? A rematch is already in discussion, but it’s hard to say whether Holm is truly the better fighter or if she was just more prepared on that particular night.

Moving forward in UFC, it will be interesting to see how things unfold. Rousey has been medically suspended for up to 180 days following her knockout loss. But, according to an Instagram message posted by Rousey, she will be back. My guess is she will be as strong as ever. She is a role model to many and will not let this one loss define her.