Tate v. Rousey

If you didn't watch Strikeforce on Saturday night, surely by now you've seen the stills, the youtube, and the Gracie Breakdown....

In case no, here's the full fight.



Here's the Gracie Breakdown (as they note: viewer discretion is advised.)



I was THRILLED to death that Ronda won. I didn't like the attitudes displayed by either woman leading up to the fight. I won't use the term "lady" for a reason. I didn't like their behavior during the weighins either. However, I have utmost respect for Ronda's skill as a judoka, and I (for some reason) like her better than I like Miesha, so that's why I rooted for Ronda. And screamed bloody murder throughout the fight.

Just my $.02, while I try to keep in mind that when it's YOU in there, things happen way faster, and it's a lot harder to do what should be done than you realize. I am trying to be sympathetic to Miesha in other words.

-- It seemed like Tate didn't prepare to fight someone who eats a few punches, gets the head and arm control from inside, does a hip toss or harai goshi, and then goes for an armbar. In other words-- did she really think about who she was fighting in this matchup? Because that's Ronda's deal-- takedown > armbar. She's the Arm Collector. Tate should have known this coming in!

-- Instead, it looked like she wanted to punch. She didn't work to maintain a striking distance. She didn't kick to keep Ronda away. Unless you have one-punch-knockout power, or precision kicking to the face, it's going to be hard to win a striking fight early on and quickly enough to be immune to the takedown.

-- She didn't make Ronda work and burn off some energy. (Ronda's longest fight previously was what, 1:30? something like that?) Now I know Ronda cut down to 135 for this, so you would think that included enough work to have plenty of cardio-- but what if the cut was tough on her? You'd think the strategery of the Tate camp would have pushed for a bit of delay.

-- When Ronda got in close, it seemed like Miesha just accepted the inevitable. I'm a total yutz when it comes to judo, but I have been taught some ways to foil a hip toss. I know with adrenaline and yes, a world-class Olympic medalist in judo, that it might have been just too fast and hard to deploy any counters. But as many times as I've watched this fight, I didn't see anything that I identified as even attempts at defeating the judo. Did you? did I miss something?

-- WHAT THE FLIP was Miesha doing on Ronda's back? Yay that she got there, of course-- but she had DOUBLE UNDERS from the back. Does Miesha train on the ground at all???? was she just stuck with her gloves under Ronda's arms, given that Ronda was messing with Miesha's hooks using her hands?

-- To critique Ronda just a tiny bit-- she would have finished that first armbar if she would have had better control of Ronda's upper arm. Instead, her ankles were crossed and her knees spread wide. This is conclusive proof that Ronda is in fact mortal.

-- I kind of wonder if Miesha's elbow was dislocated at the end of the first armbar. Sure seemed that way.

-- I have a hard time picturing wanting to win a fight so badly that I would go through the pain of a fully inverted, reversed, inside-outed elbow to get it. I know, Jacare sucked it up and won against Roger with a broken arm. Yet another reason I'll never make it that far.

What did you think of the fight?