Amanda Nunes, right, connects with Ronda Rousey in the first round of their women's bantamweight championship bout at UFC 207. Nunes won comprehensively. Photo / AP
Amanda Nunes, right, connects with Ronda Rousey in the first round of their women's bantamweight championship bout at UFC 207. Nunes won comprehensively. Photo / AP
The queen is dead.
Not literally, of course, but any hope Ronda Rousey had of regaining her status as the UFC's most feared competitor was completely obliterated by Amanda Nunes at UFC 207.
Fans were unsure what to expect from Rousey, who was returning to the Octagon for the firsttime since losing her bantamweight strap to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November 2015. What we know now is the Rousey of old is no more.
Nunes said before the bout she knew she was the superior fighter, and the Brazilian backed up her pre-fight confidence with the performance to match.
In less than a minute she did enough damage to the 29-year-old to force referee Herb Dean to jump in and stop the fight. In 48 seconds we had an answer to the question everyone had been asking for more than a year: Does Ronda still have it?
So much of the fight was about Rousey. Amanda Nunes had every right to be offended she - as the defending bantamweight champion - was going under the radar.
But that's just the way she wanted it.
Before the fight Rousey was virtually silent. The Brazilian spoke only slightly more, but because the UFC's biggest star didn't want to do media before the bout, Nunes' chances to talk were limited.
"Honestly, I was completely OK with everything," Nunes said in the post-fight press conference when asked her thoughts on Rousey's media blackout. She was thrilled.
Instead, she did her talking in the Octagon. First with her fists, and then with her tongue.
"This is amazing. This moment is my moment," Nunes said after her victory. "She had her time. Right now, I'm the champion.
"People, let's stop this Ronda Rousey nonsense. I'm the champion here.
"I knew I was going to beat the s*** out of Ronda Rousey."
With Rousey's star all but diminished, Nunes called on the UFC world to end its obsession with the crossover star and focus its attention on the up-and-coming talent in the bantamweight division.
"Everybody, I'm the best on the planet. Bulls*** Ronda Rousey.
"In this division we have a lot of talent, now you guys have to look at these girls who are coming up and working hard, come on. Forget about Ronda Rousey."
Nunes didn't take long to hop on social media, hitting Rousey once more outside the Octagon with this tweet.
Nunes was one who took aim at him for his delusional approach in convincing Rousey - an Olympic medallist in judo - that boxing was her biggest strength.
After the fight was stopped Nunes made her way to Rousey's corner and put her finger up to her lips - a move she later explained.
"She thinks she's a boxer. He (Tarverdyan) put this thing in her head and made the girl believe in that, I don't know why he did that. She's great at judo but he put some crazy thing about his boxing and her head started going down.
"I'm the real striker here and that's the only thing I wanted to say to him."
Good Lord. How the hell is that Edmond guy allowed to pretend to coach anyone?
A video was doing the rounds on social media shortly after the fight claiming to include the audio of what Tarverdyan was allegedly telling his pupil during the bout. The authenticity of the video hasn't been verified, but that didn't stop people laughing at the instructions Rousey was receiving.
The video was later removed from social channels, but you can find a transcript of the audio here.
Like regular punters, plenty of those who make a living from analysing fights were left completely bewildered.
Bloody Elbow's Mookie Alexander said the 48-second debacle could very well tarnish Rousey's reputation forever.
"Amanda Nunes starched Ronda Rousey in a way that suggests that Rousey had no business being in the same state as her, let alone the same cage," Alexander wrote.
"This was just staggeringly non-competitive. We saw her reign of dominance for years and how it captivated an audience and turned her into a superstar, but that may very well be a distant memory given how the peak of her drawing power coincided with her getting viciously knocked out, her glaring flaws exposed for the world to see.
"We knew Rousey was an awful striker and a ruinously bad defensive one, but that was just a complete and utter humiliation."
Washington Post MMA writer Jeff Wagenheim had a crack at Rousey for failing to be a gracious loser as she left the Octagon in a rush, calling her behaviour "classless".
Writing for Bleacher Report, Mike Chiappetta said the chinks in Rousey's armour that were exposed a year ago still had not been repaired, and her second loss in as many fights now reduced her status to that of a mere mortal.
"All this time after her first loss, Rousey showed no improvements to the head movement issues that plagued her in her loss to Holly Holm. She was upright and available, almost inviting trouble, and Nunes obliged, battering Rousey first with a left hook that wobbled her, then with a series of powerful rights," he wrote.
"All this time later, nothing had changed. Rousey still had the holes in her striking that could be exposed. Her head was still upright. Her confidence could be cracked. She was mortal."
He was of the opinion, like most others, that Rousey's time in the Octagon was over. "More importantly, peace is out there for her. She won't find it in the cage and in the eye of the storm that surrounds her.
"It's clear Rousey can't stand the spotlight, that her skin is too thin for the criticism that comes with the fight game."
The commentators
Miesha Tate knows all too well what it's like to walk out of the Octagon dejected after fighting Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes. Nunes took Tate's bantamweight title from her and Rousey beat her twice in her career.
Her pre-fight prediction of a Nunes win was vindicated when the Brazilian started throwing them like Tate knew she could.
"I told you, I told you," Tate said. "Amanda Nunes hits hard. She hits like a man, in the women's division. I've never been hit so hard in my life and Ronda Rousey just didn't have a chance to get comfortable. She didn't have a chance to find her range or close the distance. She got popped with that jab and it was a downward slide from there."
Defending middleweight champion Michael Bisping said the time was right for Rousey to quit the sport.
"It popped the head back of Ronda Rousey and I think she was stunned from that one shot. But from there she followed it up. It was an onslaught. Rights, lefts. She swarmed (but) stayed just enough on the outside so that Rousey couldn't get a hold of her and of course, finished the job. My word, I'm totally blown away.
"You've got the cash, walk away."
What in the world just happen in Vegas at UFC, no head movement, awkward stiffness, not relaxed, this has to be the trainers fault 😡😡😡
