It was harder than expected, but Ronda Rousey managed to finish Miesha Tate and defend the women's bantamweight belt. The fight was the second most important fight of UFC 168, an event that takes place tonight (28), in Las Vegas.
The fight
The fight between Ronda and Miesha was surrounded by rivalry and provocations before the duel. But as soon as the bell sounded, the champion tried to impose her record of submitting all her opponents with an armbar in the first round. However, Tate was willing to break the rival streak.
The challenger showed good defense against submission attacks and even managed to take down her rival, who is an Olympic medalist in judo. Miesha still landed good strikes in her striking, but, despite some difficulties, the champion dominated the first half. Sovereign in the grappling fight, Rousey managed beautiful takedowns and controlled the fight on the ground.
In the second round, for the first time in his career, Ronda showed that he didn't feel the rhythm of the fight. The champion this time didn't want to take any chances with striking and worked the entire time in the clinch, looking for a takedown. After unsuccessfully attempting an arm-bar, Ronda came close to landing an inverted triangle at the end of the round, but Tate managed to defend himself with great bravery.
Despite the challenger's race, she was unable to survive the third round. Ready to end the fight, Rousey closed the distance, reached the takedown and began heading towards the submission. As soon as she got the gap, Ronda applied the well-known arm-bar and this time Miesha was unable to make the save.
In the end, yet another controversy in the rivalry between Ronda Rousey e Miesha Tate. After being submitted, the challenger stood up and extended her arm for the champion to stand up. However, she turned away and received many boos from the audience at the MGM Gran Garden Arena.
“!Firstly I have to congratulate Miesha for the fight she did. But because of everything that happened, I couldn't greet her. I felt disrespected and promised my family I would do this. I can’t shake her hand now,” said the champion.
Check out the UFC 168 results below:
main card
Chris Weidman x Anderson Silva
Ronda Rousey finished Miesha Tate with an armbar on R3;
Travis Browne defeated Josh Barnett by knockout in R1;
Jim Miller submitted Fabrício Morango with an armbar in R1;
Dustin poirier derrotou Diego Brandao by technical knockout in R1;
Preliminary Card
Uriah Hall derrotou Chris Leben by knockout in R1;
Michael Johnson derrotou Gleison Tibau by knockout in R2;
Dennis Siver defeated Manny Gamburyan via unanimous decision;
John Howard defeated Siyar Bahadurzada via unanimous decision;
William Patolino defeated Bobby Voelker via unanimous decision;
Robbie Peralta defeated Estevan Payan by knockout in R3;
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