Ronda Rousey Loss: Amanda Nunes Replaces ‘Rowdy’ As The Champ To Beat [Opinion]

Friday night’s Ronda Rousey loss was a complete shocker of draw-dropping proportions. I was dumbfounded as, after the first few punches landed by Amanda Nunes, Rousey didn’t spring back into action and at the very least start defending herself. As each subsequent pummel was dealt to Ronda’s face, it quickly became clear that she was done for.

https://youtu.be/Ya2BOsPZdc8

One thing MMA fans now know for sure after this second stunning Ronda Rousey loss is that Amanda Nunes is a force to be reckoned with, and if she fights as she did against Rousey every time she defends her title, she’ll no doubt become the next champion who seems impossible to beat, as Ronda once was.

This Ronda Rousy loss proved that unless you’re going to come out vicious and aggressive against Nunes, don’t even bother. “The Lioness” has proven that she is a formidable opponent. Gamblers in Vegas ranked her as the underdog, yet she did what next to no one thought possible as she took the six-time defending UFC female bantamweight champion out in under a minute, and barely broke a sweat doing so.

How did this second Ronda Rousey loss occur? That’s what people in the world of MMA are asking themselves this morning. Was she not as ready as everyone thought she was? Evidently not.

Even before this loss against Nunes, there were MMA buffs who were skeptical of Rousey going for a title fight right away. With the devastation of the loss against Holm coupled with not setting foot in the octagon in over a year, some believed she would have done herself a favor by fighting a lower-ranked seed to get her feet wet before facing Nunes right away.

As the UFC 207 commentators discussed, Ronda wasn’t prepared for the power of Amanda’s punches. Announcer Miesha Tate, former bantamweight champ who also claimed a loss against Nunes, said that Rousey, although she got stunned from a swift jab in the beginning, should have been moving her head around instead of allowing for it to be such an easy target.

Tate had predicted a second Ronda Rousey loss would happen during UFC 207, and though she kind of took it back the day before the fight, she stuck with that prediction just prior to the matchup.

Tate’s fellow male commentators were just as shocked as the rest of us in the minutes immediately following the Nunes victory. It seems no one except for Tate, who has actually faced the Brazilian mixed martial artist, thought they’d be discussing a Ronda Rousey loss when all was said and done.

After all, the Holly Holm loss had just been a one time thing, a spoof, right? Ronda had easily dominated every fighter she’d faced before Holm, so why would Amanda be any different?

“Because she hits hard,” seems to be the consensus. Nunes takes advantage of her length when dealing out blows, and according to Miesha, when you’re at the receiving end of one, you think there’s no way she’ll be able to connect only to be stunned once it happens.

No matter if the UFC 207 Ronda Rousey loss made you happy or sad, I think I can speak for most everyone when I say that I hope Ronda is mentally and emotionally stable and that she remains as such. She did, after all, confess to contemplating suicide after her loss to Holm while appearing on the talk show Ellen earlier this year, and suicide is not a subject to be taken lightly.

According to MMA Fighting, UFC president Dana White was with Rousey following her astonishing loss, and he said she’s as dejected as anyone in her position would be, but he believes she’s taking it better than she did with the Holm loss.

“‘She’s a lot better than the Holly Holm fight,’ White said. ‘She was backstage and obviously she was upset. But she’s got a lot of support for her, and I think it’ll be a lot better than the Holm fight.'”

The Ronda Rousey loss may be what everyone is talking about at the moment, but the woman of the hour is Amanda Nunes. She has replaced Ronda as the one to beat, and boy did she earn it. It’s time to forget about the past and look towards the future, because something tells me Nunes won’t have much trouble defending her title. That is, if anyone is brave enough to challenge her in the first place.

[Featured Image by John Locher/AP Images]