Analysing how Holly Holm conquered Ronda Rousey

The new Bantamweight champion of the worldOn Sunday, November 15th, the MMA world witnessed the biggest upset since Matt Serra beat Georges St. Pierre.Ronda Rousey was not only beaten by Holly Holm, she was dominated in every department by Holm. Holm put on a masterclass and Rousey was clearly out of her depth. With her win, Holly Holm has ushered in a new era in womens MMA.She has successfully derailed the Ronda Rousey hype train and Rousey for her part now, will need to overcome the first major setback of her already legendary MMA career.Lets be clear, a loss, though devastating to Rousey personally, is hardly insurmountable. Think of your favourite martial artists ever, they all lost. Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Jose Aldo, Jon Jones, Chuck Liddell, the list goes on.Rousey is young enough to rebound and have a great second half of her career, but whether she will be able to do that is another question. This will be the toughest hurdle she has had to overcome and her mental strength will be put to the test.However, questions about Ronda Rousey regaining her title are for another day. Here, we look at what Holly Holm did so right to make things go so wrong for the now former champion.

#1 Defending the takedown

There has been a lot of talk in the wake of the fight about Ronda’s strategy. People have been saying she played into Holly’s hands and didn’t try to take her down.

However when you look at the fight, you’ll see that is completely untrue. Ronda attempted multiple takedowns, Holly was just too good at defending them. The one time Ronda did get her down, Holly sprung straight back up.

Going into the fight, the general consensus was that the longer the fight stayed on the feet, the more it suited Holly, but if it got to the ground, Ronda would get the arm and score the submission.

Therefore, the most important part of the fight was not Holly’s work on the feet, but the clinch. The clinch is what determines whether a fight stays on the feet or goes to the mat. While Ronda was aggressively seeking the clinch, Holly kept circling the outside trying to avoid it.

Famed MMA coach, Firas Zahabi explains Holly’s technique to avoid the takedown brilliantly in the video below.

As you can see, Ronda clearly attempted the takedown on multiple occasions but it is a testament to Holly’s defence that it appeared to many that she didn’t.

#2 Circling and Cutting Angles.

Holly made Ronda chase her the entire fight

In almost all of Ronda’s previous title defences, her opponent has matched, or not negated her early blitz.

Ronda doesn’t mind eating a few shots on her way to getting through her opponents defences, into the clinch to start working her grappling or dirty boxing, like she did against Bethe Correia.

When Bethe fought Ronda, she managed to avoid the first barrage of a close range onslaught but was very static after that, to the point where she seemed flat footed. Bethe stood in front of Ronda, not forcing the American to make any angle adjustments or change directions.

Holly, on the other hand, kept moving. She circled the entire octagon twice in the first minute and made Ronda chase her. By doing this Holly exposed one of the more glaring flaws in Ronda’s game. When opponents circle around the octagon, Ronda has a tendency of chasing them in a circular path.

This means turning constantly which creates minor openings. Against a striker of the calibre of Holly Holm, those minor openings are game changing. Ronda should have moved linearly, in a line across the octagon to box Holly in. Circling meant Holly could dictate where the fight was going.

Ronda began to correct her mistake however, Holly had already inflicted significant damage. Holly took her time in the first round, picked her shots and by the end of the round she had lit Ronda up so bad that Ronda was swinging wildly and looking very sloppy.

#3 The kicks

Holly Holm using kicks to the midsection to gas out her opponent

From now till long after she retires, whenever someone mentions Holly Holm and kicks, our minds will immediately move towards the head kick heard around the world. However, the real difference makers were the kicks Holly landed prior to the knockout blow.

For a while now, fighters from Jackson’s MMA, Holly’s gym, have been using the oblique kick to the leg. This is used primarily as a defensive kick to prevent the opponent from getting too close.

Jon Jones used it multiple times against Daniel Cormier and Holly used it to perfection against Ronda. Holly did an excellent job of maintaining distance, mainly by cutting angles, as we discussed in the previous slide. However whenever Ronda got too close and Holly didn’t have much room to escape from, she would throw an oblique kick to keep Ronda away.

As the fight wore on, the effects of multiple oblique kicks began to show. Ronda was slowing and not moving freely. The kicks threw her off her game so much that she was losing her footing, most notably in the second round when Holly ducked and avoided the big hook that Ronda attempted.

Holm also landed a few kicks to Ronda’s mid-section. With Ronda tiring, this gassed her out even faster. Kicks to the body are painful and make breathing very difficult. It tests a fighter’s cardio to the max and Holly used them brilliantly.

#4 Exploiting Ronda\'s weaknesses

What did we all agree on about Ronda Rousey coming into this fight? She has excellent grappling, she has excellent judo and she is aggressive.

Ronda’s aggression has more often than not been the main reason for her fights ending so quickly. Right off the gate she storms her opponent and unloads on them. Up to this point, that aggression has been a huge advantage of Ronda. Holly Holm, however, took that apparent advantage and used it against Ronda.

Through the fight, Holly would lean forward until her nose, shoulder and toes were all in one line, baiting Ronda to strike. The second Ronda did strike, Holly would lean back, avoid the incoming punch and counter with a punch of her own.

This was one of the most elite displays of counter punching we’ve seen in women’s MMA. After her counter punch, Holly would circle away, make Ronda chase and then repeat the drill. Ronda fell for it almost every time. Her lack of skill on her feet was evident all through the fight and Holly Holm put on a striking clinic. At times, it felt like a master was schooling a very raw student.

Ronda is an elite level MMA fighter, an elite-level judoka and an elite level grappler, however, her striking is very raw. After the fight, there have been plenty of questions raised about whether Ronda needs to change coaches to become a better striker and it’s not difficult to see why.

Her win against Bethe Correia gave the impression that her game had evolved to a level it wasn’t at in reality. Bethe is a brawler who likes to keep the fight at a close distance, which suits Ronda. Holly is a kickboxer and a world champion boxer.

She was able to exploit Ronda’s lack of understanding of distance management and octagon control.

Ronda also has very clear tells about what she is about to do. She had a very difficult time in disguising her punches. Ronda’s footwork was another weakness that Holm capitalized on. Ronda has a tendency to hop as she is moving. When she does this, she lunges forward with her left leg.

As Ronda lunged forward, Holly would either circle out and force Ronda to change direction again, or she would pick a punch.

Finally, another weakness that was evident especially as Ronda began to tire in the second round was her guard. Ronda had her hands down and chin up. This left Holly with plenty of room to land punches and eventually her now famous kick.

It remains to be seen whether Ronda Rousey can correct the flaws in her striking arsenal. It remains to be seen who her coach will be the next time she fights. But until then we can all appreciate the genius of Holly Holm, a deserving world champion.