It’s been a fantastic year for Mixed Martial Arts.
Once deemed a sport that had seen its most popular days, this year it’s turned a corner and has seemingly been embraced by the mainstream. No doubt thanks to a couple of huge stars (more on them later), MMA and the UFC is now seen by more eyes than ever before.
Yesterday, we covered part one of MMA’s 2015 ‘A Year in Review,’ and today we move on to part two, starting with…
The Rise and Fall of Ronda Rousey
In January this year, Rousey beat Cat Zingano in just 14 seconds to retain her UFC Women’s Bantamweight championship. That victory sparked a flood of interest and support in the champion that turned her into a global superstar. The complete and utter destructive path she’d carved through her division, summed up in GIF-shared victories, combined with her bad-ass charisma and beauty, made her a phenom. Ronda Rousey broke MMA into the mainstream in a way that none, not even Brock Lesnar, had managed before.
Rousey’s year continued to gain momentum as she was given movie roles, book deals, and awards in abundance (including ESPN’s Best Female Athlete Ever). When she faced off against Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in Brazil, it was the culmination of that momentum. Correia had made hugely personal attacks at the champion, including some regarding Rousey’s father, who took his own life.
The story behind the fight: the fact that it was held in Brazil and the fact that the challenger had ‘overstepped the mark’ with the father comment, made it a huge event. When Rousey KO’d Correia in 34 seconds, turned to her opponent’s slumped body and seemingly said, “Don’t cry” it turned her star into a supernova.
At first, what came next was logical. Rousey was booked in a record-breaking stadium event against opponent Holly Holm. The fight was somewhat of a formality, with Rousey’s stardom the drawing attraction. Seemingly, people were just tuning in to see how fast she could defeat another opponent. Then, on the week of the fight, things changed.
Fans began to turn on Rousey, claiming her arrogance in the face of the likable Holm was off putting and disrespectful. When the weigh-ins for the fight came, Rousey lost her cool, shouting and swearing at the challenger. The tide turned even more.
Fight night came and, once again, fans were furious at Rousey’s attitude as she refused to touch gloves with her opponent. Then the momentum, the barreling, unstoppable force she had become over the year, stopped and threw itself backwards.
Holm destroyed the champion, knocking her unconscious with a brutal head kick in the second round. Fans around the globe rejoiced. The social media reaction was unfathomable. Meme after meme of the now downed ex-champion was shared. Celebrities that had for so long been her supporter turned on her. Even in defeat, Rousey was still breaking doors down.
Post-fight, Rousey went into hiding. As some gleefully celebrated her defeat, others wondered what her next step would be.
Rousey, like her or hate her, let her thoughts be known in her unmistakable style.
“I need to come back,” Rousey said. “I need to beat this chick. Who knows if I’m going to pop my teeth out or break my jaw or rip my lip open. I have to fucking do it.”
The Rebok Reebok Deal
After her Reebok deal was signed last year, many were waiting expectantly to see what the companies working together could produce.
Already a controversial move, with many speaking out against the transition and decreasing money going to the UFC roster, including fighters such as Tim Kennedy and Brendan Schaub and UFC hero ‘Stitch’ Duran was fired after an interview.
The pressure was on to make a decent product.
The verdict: Not good.
The Fighter Kits were revealed and released in June, this year and things got off to a shaky start as various fighters names were spelled or listed incorrectly. Gilbert Melendez became ‘Giblert’, Matt Hughes became ‘Mark’, and so on.
The kits were largely panned as shabby-looking and overly expensive, ranging around $80 to purchase.
As the year progressed, things only seemed to get worse, as Reebok made mistake after mistake.
The Nevada Athletic Commission vs. Nick Diaz
After his fight against Anderson Silva this January, Nick Diaz was given three drug tests, failing one of them for traces of marijuana. As it was Diaz’s third offense for the same crime, it seemed like a cut-and-dry case. Then, when the controversial fighter went for his meeting (and to be given his punishment) with the Nevada Athletic Commission in September, things took a turn.
Aided by a phenomenal legal team, it came to light that Diaz had passed two of the drug tests, which were both conducted under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) conditions. The test he had failed was found to have a radically different result, and was the only test to not be under the stricter WADA code.
The findings should have created a reasonable doubt, yet in the face of expert after expert, the NSAC (in particular Pat Lundvall) got angrier and angrier with the defiant Diaz. After Lundvall behaved obscenely in asking the fighter questions and ignoring his legal right to ‘plead the 5th’, she called to give Diaz a lifetime ban, citing his disrespect.
Other committee members were slightly more hesitant, and instead Diaz was given a five-year suspension.
The decision was unanimously panned, and a petition was formed online on the White House government site. Uniting the MMA fans, the petition received 115,056 signatures, and as such received a response.
“The federal government plays no role in the disciplinary actions taken by state athletic commissions,” said ‘the White House’. “So we are not in a position to address the specific request raised in your petition. State authorities — in this case, the Nevada Athletic Commission — will generally be the best source for information about those kinds of issues.
However, we appreciate that so many of you banded together to make your voices heard through this platform.”
Although the political response wasn’t a game changer, it has since emerged that Diaz’s legal team is in negotiations with the NSAC, and it appears as if the huge backlash shall result in Stockton’s finest receiving a significantly smaller punishment.
Please check back tomorrow for part three of ‘A Year in Review’!
