UFC 170: Rousey vs. McMann

UFC 170: Rousey vs. McMann
Saturday, February 22, 2014
From the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada
Live on Pay-Per-View at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT

Main Event:

UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship: Ronda Rousey (C) vs. Sara McMann (#4)

Main Card Bouts:

Light Heavyweight Bout: Daniel Cormier vs. Patrick Cummins

Welterweight Bout: Rory MacDonald (#4) vs. Demian Maia (#6)

Welterweight Bout: Mike Pyle (#15) vs. TJ Waldburger

Welterweight Bout: Robert Whittaker vs. Stephen Thompson

Preliminary Bouts: (Live on FOX Sports 1 at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT)

Women's Bantamweight Bout: Alexis Davis (#3) vs. Jessica Eye (#5)

Bantamweight Bout: Raphael Assuncao (#3) vs. Pedro Munhoz

Bantamweight Bout: Cody Gibson vs. Aljamain Sterling

Flyweight Bout: Zach Makovsky (#10) vs. Josh Sampo

Preliminary Bouts: (Live on UFC Fight Pass at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT)

Lightweight Bout: Rafaello Oliveira vs. Erik Koch

Lightweight Bout: Ernest Chavez vs. Yosdenis Cedeno

PAT CUMMINS

I think this booking is such a safe/protective move for the UFC to pull. McMann is a threat, but she is still relatively green. She will be 10 times the threat in a year. The chances are real good she gets caught in arm bar this weekend and it sets her back some time.

If this show doesn't deliver there could be some noticeable loss of fans.

The UFC has been struggling a bit as of late and done some things to alienate many fans (i.e. UFC Fight Pass).

Even though this card has lost a few big fights (Cormier vs. Rashad, Melendez vs. Nurmagomedov, Dos Anjos vs. Khabilov) and most of the undercard has dealt with injury replacements, there should still be a fairly big audience given that Ronda Rousey is headlining.

The idea behind the matchup is clearly set up for Rousey to get a showcase win. However, McMann is a legitimate threat to win, even if she hasn't been all that active lately and doesn't have a lot of MMA experience. Her wrestling is certainly the best in women's MMA (she won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics), and she is no slouch when it comes to submission grappling (as seen in her fights against submission specialists like Shayna Baszler and Hitomi Akano).

It should be interesting to see Cormier make his debut at 205. But it sucks that he's fighting an absolute nobody in Pat Cummins. It's even worse with the tacky storyline their going for this fight (Cummins claiming he made Cormier cry in a wrestling practice).

To me, this fight is to get Rousey a win over McMann while she still can so she can take time off to go make movies. McMann has the skillset to beat Rousey, but it isn't honed in nearly enough right now, imo. I think this fight ends in submission in round one or two because I just don't think McMann has the sub defense to stay out of the armbar. It will be interesting to see what Rosey does with someone when she isn't the clearly superior athlete, but the result will ultimately be the same I think.

If they run this fight back even nine months from now I think the result would be different, or at least there is a good chance it would.

Watching the prelims.

I can totally see why Dana wants to institute a standard 'uniform'. I don't agree that they should, but I completely understand where he's coming from.

Another UFC main event, another early stoppage imo from Herb Dean. Ronda landed a vicious knee to the body, but I thought Herb stepped in before Sara even had a chance to recover after going down. Those little shots Ronda threw after didn't seem to be that legit. It looks like Ronda might be off to Hollywood, but either Alexis Davis or Cat Zigano should be next for her.

http://deadspin.com/ronda-rousey-and-the-ufcs-long-con-1529085205

Interesting view on the UFC.

WhoBetta wrote:Watching the prelims.

I can totally see why Dana wants to institute a standard 'uniform'. I don't agree that they should, but I completely understand where he's coming from.

It's an individual sport though. Different outfits help fighters become recognizable: Chuck Liddell's Iceman shorts, Tito Ortiz's Punishment flames, Anderson Silva's black/yellow shorts, etc.

The only reason why the UFC brass would want uniforms is to make money off of whoever the the apparel provider would end up being.

Nintendomark wrote:Another UFC main event, another early stoppage imo from Herb Dean.  Ronda landed a vicious knee to the body, but I thought Herb stepped in before Sara even had a chance to recover after going down.  Those little shots Ronda threw after didn't seem to be that legit.  It looks like Ronda might be off to Hollywood, but either Alexis Davis or Cat Zigano should be next for her.

Herb Dean has been absolutely terrible as of late. He's screwed up the stoppages of a few major fights lately: Barnett vs. Mir, Barao vs. Faber, and Rousey vs. McMann.

What's even worse is how inconsistent he is throughout entire events. Earlier on the show, he let TJ Waldburger eat punches and elbows unanswered while out of it for about 30 seconds, but then stops the main event as soon as McMann was dropped from one body shot. And the stoppage came while McMann was getting up from it. Those punches Ronda was throwing weren't threatening at all.

I get that it's better for a referee to err on the side of caution, but in main events, especially in a championship fight, it's expected that the fighters should get more of an opportunity to continue. Imagine if Herb Dean had made calls like this in Fight of the Year bouts like Edgar vs. Maynard 2, Shogun vs. Hendo, or Melendez vs. Diego.

Cormier vs. Cummins was a joke when it was booked, and the outcome of the fight proved it. Cormier looked like a killer at 205, but this was the epitome of a squash match, so it didn't prove anything.