Down Under, the expected outcome turned upside down at UFC 193 on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia.
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Holm followed up with a few strikes before the referee stopped the fight, with Rousey looking considerably the worse for wear.
Rousey was immediately transported to the hospital where she received stitches for her split lip and treatment for a concussion.
“I’m trying to take this in, but this is insane”.
Sometimes the fight game is one big circle, and Foreman is betting Rousey will make her way back, eventually.
Holly Holm has done the seemingly impossible.
“We figured her aggression was coming, if it didn’t that’s OK, but with footwork and my career we figured she wouldn’t give me that space”, Holm told ABC News. “There’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears but it was all worth it”.
She had Rousey staggering in the second round with a few crunching left hooks, before finishing her off with a left-foot kick that landed flush under the champion’s jaw.
Rousey’s trainer Edmond Tarverdyan: “I’m just staying strong now next to Ronda”.
“The results around town were not good”, Westgate Las Vegas vice president Jay Kornegay said after the fight. “The rematch is what the people want to see”. “She came in with it (Saturday) and now she is the champion”.
After holding her own and defending off an armbar attempt in the first round, Holm opened the second round with a vicious kick to Rousey’s neck.
Rousey, 28, has taken UFC by storm since her debut in 2012 and her success has led to several movie projects as well the publishing of her autobiography. Typically dominant against the UFC’s female bantamweight division, Rousey looked overmatched when Holm, a former professional boxing champion, picked her apart for the entirety of the near-two-round fight.
“They’re the scariest moments”.
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“I’ve been on the losing side of a fight and wanted to avenge my loss – absolutely, she deserves a rematch”. I have not spent this much time in the gym before any fight in my life… Holm ultimately took the win 10-9.
