I haven\u2019t been a regular fan of boxing or mixed martial arts for a long time. As a kid and young adult and even into early middle age I used to growl and cheer like millions of other bloodthirsty souls who enjoyed watching people destroy each other. Disappointingly, I don\u2019t recall questioning this behavior. At some point, though, the process of my aging coalesced with visions of fighters killed in battle or, far more often, losing their ability to talk and think and care for themselves after receiving too many blows to the brain, and I decided to watch less and at times stopped watching at all. I preferred the vigor and consummate athleticism of football and basketball, the creativity of movies and art, and the stimulation of writing and reading. I might have been able to almost entirely avoid news of combat sports if not for the allure of the internet and its YouTube trove offering thousands of fights great and ordinary. I still usually resist but Saturday night clicked on espn.com because I had a recurring desire to learn what happened when mixed martial arts bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey defended her title against Holly Holm. And the news stunned me: Holm had knocked out the ostensibly indestructible Rousey. <\/p>\n
\tI couldn\u2019t find any video that night but read some blow-by-blow reports and watched an interview with the new champion, and next morning saw the brutal mismatch. Though both women scaled a hundred thirty-four pounds at the weigh-in, Holm looked a few inches taller and several pounds heavier. Rousey may have been frightened by her diminutiveness and tried to compensate by pretending to attack Holm, who held her position and pushed a clenched right into Rousey\u2019s cheek. That was not the first strange act by a champion celebrated for good looks and charisma but disliked by many because she sometimes curses and bullies future or even imaginary opponents. Despite being a career judoka, grappler, and submission specialist, undefeated in twelve fights, Rousey recklessly vowed to \u201cbeat her at her own game.\u201d Holly Holm\u2019s game is winning thirty-three of thirty-five boxing matches and holding world titles during an eleven-year career. She also has experience as a kick boxer and is undefeated in nine MMA bouts.<\/p>\n
\tIn Melbourne, Holly Holm used all her weapons and experience. In the first round, five minutes in MMA, as short-armed and awkward Ronda Rousey attempted to learn big-time boxing on the fly, the challenger, a southpaw, several times blasted her with some of the sharpest overhand lefts I\u2019ve seen. Rousey\u2019s face soon reddened and her nose bled. For more than two minutes she continued this folly before pushing Holm against the cage but the larger lady moved away when she chose. Awhile later Rousey took Holm to the mat, but the powerful striker, who\u2019s also worked on grappling defense, evaded the champion\u2019s dreaded armbar, which had forced nine (not always elite) opponents to submit, and powered her way to her feet and delivered more sharp, straight lefts to Rousey\u2019s face. She then took the champion down but prudently decided to avoid Rousey\u2019s turf and stood to step away. This round reminded me of the first round of the Joe Frazier-George Foreman fight. Smokin\u2019 Joe, undefeated and a legend after decisioning Muhammad Ali two years earlier, was an overwhelming favorite but big George stormed out and floored him three times and won the fight, though it didn\u2019t technically end until the second round when Frazier hit the canvas three more times.<\/p>\n
\tStarting the second round here, Ronda Rousey may have realized the fight was essentially over. Still bleeding and now breathing heavily through her mouth, she threw a weak left hook that Holm easily avoided and, using Rousey\u2019s momentum, pushed the champion down, and, as she arose and started to turn, Holm unleashed a huge roundhouse left kick that knocked Rousey out before she hit the canvas, and she lay inert as Holm pounced and twice struck her before the referee stopped the fight. If you are young, remember this: fifty years from now you will still share impressions and watch replays of the perfect shin-to-jaw kick by Holly Holm. <\/p>\n
\tWhat follows? Ideally, Ronda Rousey will retire from fighting and concentrate on her movie roles and endorsement opportunities, enjoying the adulation of fans and, as well, the sycophancy of many who seek her approval. But would those perquisites and problems still be hers if she were no longer in the spotlight and had left the octagon after such an overwhelming defeat? We don\u2019t have to ponder that. Rousey will return and fight Holly Holm again. And as she prepares to meet her larger, stronger, and more diverse opponent, Rousey can check the boxing record of Holm and note four years ago she was knocked out by Anne Sophie Mathis and lost her world title. Six months later she got it back in the rematch. That\u2019s what Ronda Rousey needs, realistic goals. Not the ones she and her promoter Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, have been talking about: beating Floyd Mayweather badly and crushing a variety of opponents large and small, male and female. Keep it real. Focus on the woman in your weight class who just knocked you out. <\/p>\n