Ronda Rousey shocked, knocked out by Holly Holm at UFC 193

With a perfectly-placed left high kick, “The Preacher’s Daughter” Holly Holm shocked the sports world, knocking the seemingly invincible “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey from consciousness and her Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight title.

In front of a record-setting crowd of 56,000-plus at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Holm knocked out Rousey 59 seconds into the second round of the UFC 193 main event Saturday (Sunday in Australia) in what may be the greatest upset in UFC history.

Rousey (12-1, 6-1 in the UFC) was as high as a 20-1 favorite heading into her bout against Holm (10-0, 3-0), a former multiple-time world boxing champion before transferring to mixed martial arts.

“I don’t know, I’m trying to take it in, but it’s crazy,” Holm told the UFC’s Joe Rogan after the bout when asked how it felt. “I had so much love and support, I just felt like, how can I not do this with all that love. I had the best coaching, from stand-up to grappling to wrestling.”

Holm, who stunned many by picking apart Rousey with pinpoint strikes while thwarting the Glendale Fighting Club trainee’s grappling game, used surgical striking and educated footwork, as Rousey, an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, chased and plodded forward, getting caught by straight lefts as her nose was bloodied.

“We figured that was coming,” said Holm of Rousey coming forward. “If it didn’t then OK, but we wanted to be ready for it if it did. But I know that because everyone knows range and footwork from my career, we figured she’d want to be putting that pressure to not give me the space to do that.”

The end came when Holm, a southpaw, landed a straight left that briefly floored Rousey. Rousey stumbled to her feet and Holm put her back down with a lethal high kick before following with right hands that called a stop to Rousey’s transcendent run as champion, which brought greater mainstream popularity to the UFC than any other champion before her.

“I have to say that everything that we worked on presented itself in the fight,” Holm said. “That actually happened to be something we worked on is trying to get on the angle of the clinch. I didn’t want to kick her in the body, because we didn’t want her to grab on to [my leg], so we were going high and it just was there.”

At the onset of the fight, as was prognosticated and unlike most Rousey bouts when she or her opponent rushed forward, the two danced around with Rousey initiating contact coming in before eating a pinpoint left straight. As was predicted by Rousey and her camp, Holm was on her bicycle, moving away and keeping her distance, but landed another left well. Rousey plodded in and landed a solid right and not long after was able to get the first clinch of the bout, pushing the challenger against the cage. Holm was able to move away, though, and landed another solid punch. Rousey, whose mouth was bloodied, then landed a good left hook in space and continued to chase. Holm landed another good shot, but Rousey was able to lock up and get a takedown, but Holm worked free and got the fight to standing again. Yet another clinch by Rousey was thwarted by Holm, who later ate another straight left with more following. Finally, Rousey clinched again and Holm actually took her down, but Rousey popped back up shortly before the first stanza ended.

It was just the second time in her career that Rousey was pushed to a second round after defeating archrival Miesha Tate for the second time in December of 2013 with a third-round armbar.

But Rousey won both rounds against Tate and clearly lost the first against Holm.

Coming out into the second, nothing changed, as Rousey looked fatigued and Holm was surgical with more lefts. Rousey continued to plod forward and even whiffed on a punch and went to a knee.

The end came when Holm landed a beautiful straight to the chin of Rousey, who lost her legs and stumbled to the canvas with her back to Holm. Rousey instinctively rose with her back to Holm, who pushed her to the side and unleashed a kick to the chin that will be replayed for years to come. Rousey stiffened and fell to her left side, face-first. Holm pounced, landing a huge right and two follow-up right hammerfists before referee Herb Dean jumped in to officially end one of the most celebrated championship reigns in combat sports history.

In the previous day’s weigh-ins, Rousey aggressively marched over to Holm for their face-off before a brief struggle was separated by UFC President Dana White. And, at the onset of Saturday’s fight, Rousey refused to touch gloves with Holm before the bout. At the conclusion, though, Holm showed great class as she took a knee to wait for Rousey to gain her bearings as she was propped up by trainer Edmond Tarverdyan.

As announcer Bruce Buffer read aloud the official decision, Rousey’s head hung before the two combatants embraced. Rousey then exited the cage without a postfight interview. She also did not attend the postfight press conference as she was transported to a local hospital.

Now questions will loom as to whether distractions of too much media, making movies, stardom, questions about her personal life and strife emerging from her mother, AnnMaria DeMars’ negative comments about Taverdyan, played a part in Rousey’s defeat or if it was simply the brilliance of Holm.

Ultimately, the biggest question for Rousey will be what’s next?