UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey fought through early adversity and successfully retained her title tonight in the main event of UFC 157: “Rousey vs Carmouche” in Anaheim, California. Rousey submitted Liz “Girl-Rilla” Carmouche with an armbar late in round one.
Carmouche had great success in the opening two minutes of the fight and nearly submitted Rousey with a standing neck crank, but the champion stayed calm and went to work on the ground. She methodically worked to pass to mount and spun into an armbar that forced Carmouche to tap out.
Rousey (7-0-0) closed the distance right away in tonight’s historic female title fight, but Carmouche (8-3-0) landed two quick counterpunches on the way in. Rousey threw Carmouche to the mat and attempted a scarf hold armlock, but Carmouche used the opportunity to hop on Rousey’s back as the fighters stood up. Carmouche secured a tight neck crank and Rousey appeared to be in trouble, but she held on and escaped. Carmouche wound up on the ground with Rousey standing over her.
From the top, Rousey dropped punches on the challenger’s face until Carmouche looked to set up a heel hook. Rousey spun and dropped down into the scarf hold position. She peppered Carmouche with short left hands and used an arm-triangle choke to pave the way for a move to mount. From there, Rousey latched onto Carmouche’s right arm. Carmouche defended well, but Rousey broke her grip and pulled back on the arm, forcing Carmouche to submit at the 4:49 mark of the opening round.
With the victory, Rousey retains her newly-established UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship and also becomes the first female fighter to ever win a fight inside the world-famous Octagon. The 2008 Olympic judo bronze medallist has finished all ten of her pro and amateur opponents with first-round armbars and she remains one of MMA’s most popular fighters. In defeat, Carmouche put on a strong showing and re-established herself as one of the bantamweight division’s top female contenders.
Winner: Ronda Rousey by Submission (Armbar) at 4:49 of round one. She improves to 7-0-0 and remains the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion.
(Photo Credit: UFC.com)
Besides working on defending armbars, people have to work on attacking from the scarf hold position…
Ronda has given her back to Liz (twice — although she only capitalized the first time) and to Miesha from that position.
Let’s try someone more flexible.
Things to work:
1st) Footwork: Ronda’s been clinching too easily;
2nd) Armbar defense: ’nuff said. We saw this time how well Ronda adjusted her armbar in the final seconds of round 1;
3rd) Scarf hold: attacking from that position. Ronda is always giving her back.
With all due respect, a scarf hold applied by a world class judoka is a pretty darn tough thing to escape from. Liz did a good job getting out the first time, but Ronda adjusted, exactly as one would expect an Olympic judoka would, and it was over from there.
i like the sneaky uppercut that Ronda caught Liz with during one of the scarfholds