The Hit List: The Top 5 Moments from UFC 184
Ronda Rousey was the big story of UFC 184, but there were also plenty of other moments from last week's big fight card that caught our attention. Ronda, Cat, stacks of submissions and more!
Read on to find out our five favorite moments from UFC 184, and then let us know yours in the comments section and on Twitter!
Rousey continues to rise above the rest
Ronda Rousey just keeps on getting better. The bantamweight champion has an ever-improving skill set that rivals any male champion in the UFC, and that also allows her to continue to beat her challengers more quickly than ever, even though they keep on getting better.
Make no mistake about it, Cat Zingano is the best fighter Rousey has yet faced. She matched Rousey mentally, and was strong enough physically to not get pushed around.
Rousey had to be more than a bully to beat Zingano. When the challenger stopped Rousey's takedown attempt and landed on top of the champ, the "Rowdy" one used her quickness and amazing submission skills to still pull out the win.
Rousey is the best in the world, and that's something to celebrate. Her hometown Los Angeles crowd inside of the Staples Center certainly did.
Ronda Rousey keeps on getting better.
In the moments after her shockingly quick win over the woman who many thought would provide the biggest challenge of Rousey's career, no one in the crowd seemed disappointed that it ended so fast and decisively. When a champion's dominance is the result of protective matchmaking or corruption, it's a bummer.
When a champion's dominance is based on superior work and skill, it is a brilliant and completely positive thing. Ronda Rousey is fighting and beating all comers in her division, because she continues to improve.
It's a pleasure to watch Rousey, and she's helping the sport of MMA grow by leaps and bounds with each new achievement.
Sub city
Rousey's arm bar was not the only impressive submission of UFC 184. Jake Ellenberger snatched Josh Koscheck's neck and wouldn't leg go.
Roan Carneiro overcame Mark Munoz's size advantage with a slick back-take and rear naked choke. Tony Ferguson took out one of the lightweight division's most accomplished grapplers, Gleison Tibau, with another RNC.
Jake Ellenberger (top) scored big with a North-South choke submission win over Josh Koscheck.
Each of those submissions came as surprises and gave indications of how much each man had improved recently. For Carneiro, his submission over a good opponent in a higher weight class than his own showed that he does indeed belong back in the UFC.
Ferguson's choke over the red-hot Brazilian black belt Tibau showed that he's ready for the lightweight division's best. Ellenberger's submission over the former title challenger Koscheck snapped a three-fight losing streak and gave him hope that he can still make a dent in the welterweight division.
Submissions got the UFC started, back in 1993, and are still one of the most exciting parts of the sport of MMA. UFC 184 was a submission hold lover's dream.
Zingano's aggressiveness
Cat Zingano has gotten a lot of flak for her charging strategy against Ronda Rousey in the main event of UFC 184. Sure, in retrospect, it's easy to suggest that Zingano's running at Rousey at the start of the fight and throwing a flying knee hastened her 14-second submission loss.
In reality, Zingano doesn't deserve derision for her aggression. Rousey simply deserves the 100 percent of the credit for the win.
It all happened so fast that it is hard to remember that, for a moment or two, Zingano appeared to be doing just fine. First, Zingano landed a knee strike.
Then, when Rousey tried to toss her with a judo flip, Zingano stuffed the attempt, drove forward and landed on top of Rousey. So far, so good, right?
Yup. Unfortunately for Zingano, Rousey is more than a juggernaut who overpowers opponents.
Cat Zingano (L) was crushed after losing to Rousey so quickly, but we can't fault her for her kill-or-be-killed strategy.
When Zingano proved too strong to simply overpower and rag doll to the ground, Rousey nimbly showed her agility and ability to adjust as she flipped on just one foot and her head to the opposite side of and on top of Zingano's body, before locking in her improvised arm bar.
Sure, Zingano lost, and lost quickly. But this writer will never fault a fighter for fighting hard.
In her last two fights, Zingano had poor starts before coming from behind. Against Rousey, she made a point out of coming out hard, perhaps to surprise the champ or perhaps simply to light a fire under her own ass in order to not get behind early.
Neither idea would have been ludicrous. Sure, Zingano would theoretically have wanted to have kept Rousey at bay with strikes and footwork to avoid a clinch with the judo champion, but staying clear of the clinch for five rounds against Ronda would be just as unlikely as anything.
So, Zingano came out hard and went for the kill right away. It didn't work out for her, but it sparked an exciting, though short fight.
Alan Jouban's stunning win
Alan Jouban is already making an impact in the welterweight division.
UFC newcomer Alan Jouban is good. The welterweight and former full-time model is very good, as a matter of fact.
He debuted in 2014 with a KO of the night and then lost a fight he probably deserved to win in his second bout. Saturday night, Jouban stormed back against Richard Walsh at UFC 184, earning yet another TKO win.
A nasty elbow strike jarred Walsh, and then Jouban went in for the finish, earning a stoppage win against the game Aussie. Next, the Louisiana native wants to fight on this spring's New Orleans' UFC card so he can impress his hometown much the way he did his adopted hometown L.A. fans.
We're betting that Jouban is just a couple of more wins from getting a top-10 opponent. If he does, we're betting that he'll be ready for them.
Holm and Pennington duke it out
Raquel Pennington and Holly Holm's co-main event fight started out cautiously but ended uproariously. Holm's body work and Pennington's power punches to the head made for a close-fought bout.
After Pennington dropped Holm late in the fight, Holm instantly rebounded, turned it up a notch and the ensuing slugfest brought the crowd to its feet. Holm got the win, but Pennington also proved that she's among the best in the bantamweight division.
