Contributor: Ben Kohn
In a rematch between two women who hate each other and have been rivals ever since Tate lost the title to Rousey, these two have been roaring at the chance to beat the hell out of other. The problem is most fans have not been as vocal about seeing these two fight again. No sugarcoating, Tate lost her last fight which was a title eliminator by KO and Rousey has been armbarring everyone she gets in the cage with since fighting Tate. Tate has struggled mightily in her fight with Kedzie, a journeywoman, and despite dominating the first round of their fight, was beaten soundly by Zingano. Tate earned the title shot off of her rivalry with Rousey and the fact that there really isn’t anyone who was ready for a title shot.
We are past the situation of how it came together so let’s break down the fight. We really all know exactly what Rousey is going to do and there’s no reason to believe she will change things up. Close the distance, clinch up and throw, snatch the arm and go home with the title. Her striking is not exactly very good and is all geared to just closing the distance. She is improving though but she hasn’t shown anything to wow me or think she will win this on the feet. Lucky for her, Miesha isn’t a very good striker either. She will throw wild hooks and not-too-straight straight punches on the feet with little power behind them. She really isn’t too much of a threat on the feet and her bread and butter is her grappling. Despite losing by armbar, Miesha was able to have some success in the grappling department against Rousey, getting the back and threatening with the RNC but being unable to lock it in. Back to the standup, Miesha really hasn’t shown anything that could threaten Rousey on the feet so that leads to where this fight will take place and that’s the ground.
Rousey on top is all about passing the guard and snatching a hold of the armbar from wherever she can, side control, mount, etc. and she’s very good at doing that. Although the armbar can be countered as Tate was able to do once, getting caught in it is the worst possible scenario for Tate and she should avoid it at all costs. Tate is a wrestler with good takedowns that she can grab in a typical shot or finish with trips and leg wraps. Once on top, Tate is not exactly too heavy as she can be swept and will get into compromising positions. Her balls-to-wall-style will work well for her early in the fight but has shown she can gas out as the fight goes on. Sadly, this fight really isn’t hard to predict. Tate has not improved much in her striking and her wrestling and grappling is her best weapon. The problem is that Rousey beat her in the first fight and Tate struggling with Zingano on the ground tells me that she doesn’t have too much that she can do to Ronda. This fight is something I can predict with confidence.
Final Prediction: Ronda Rousey by Armbar Round 1
-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten.
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