5 stupidest things UFC fighters have done while fighting
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) comprises fights involving a high-level display of skills and Fight-IQ by its combatants. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) being the world’s top MMA promotion boasts of having several such elite fighters on its roster.
The UFC competitors are some of the best athletes on the planet- physically, mentally as well as spiritually. However, they are nothing but human and none of us are perfect. Each and every one of us have been through embarrassing situations at different junctures of our life, some caused by the circumstances, whereas others caused by our own stupidity.
No worries folks! Our beloved UFC fighters are just like us.
That said, a select few UFC fighters take the cake for their terrible in-fight decisions and resultant displays of sheer stupidity on the biggest stage of MMA competition. A few such hilarious goof-ups and unnecessary stunts have been described in our list-
#5 Miesha ’Cupcake’ ‘Takedown’ Tate
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Miesha Tate (19-7) is a former UFC Women’s Bantamweight (BW/135 pound) champion. Tate’s MMA base is wrestling and she relies primarily on her grappling to outwork her opponents. Tate has developed serviceable striking over the course of her career.
On the other hand, ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey (12-2) is a former long-time UFC BW champion. Rousey’s MMA base is Judo. She is the first American woman to medal in ‘Olympic Judo’. Apart from earning a bronze medal in Judo, Rousey also holds the distinction of being one of the rare Judokas to successfully transition to the sport of MMA.
Rousey much like her arch-rival Tate, relies mainly on her grappling to take the fight to the mat and works for submissions (her trademark arm-bar in particular). Although Rousey has good raw punching power, her striking technique is rudimentary and her defensive foot-work is close to negligible.
Both Tate and Rousey have the terrible habit of walking face-first into their opponents’ strikes, something that both were criticized for after their pair of championship fights in Strikeforce and the UFC.
Rousey vs Tate 2 took place in December of 2013 at UFC 168. Although Tate lacked power in her striking as compared to Rousey, she made up for it with better foot-work and a crisp jab. Prior to her rematch against Tate, Rousey mainly relied on her opponents lunging with their strikes into mid-range after which Rousey would do her clinch-toss-tap judo routine and secure her trademark arm-bar.
Tate was the first serviceable striker that Rousey had faced up until that point in her career.
Now just when we thought Tate had a path to victory against the then-undefeated ‘Rowdy’ phenom, Tate made a critical error in the execution of her game-plan. Despite knowing that her takedowns worked against her in their first fight, Tate lunged in on Rousey looking for a single-leg, or at times hunting for a power-double leg takedown. Bad idea!
Rousey repeatedly tossed Tate to the mat. And it wasn’t just the takedown attempts, Tate also clinched with the judoka on several occasions throughout their fight that lasted 3 rounds. Tate’s corner, the UFC commentators, the fans in the arena and even Rousey’s corner were perplexed by this odd strategy by Tate.
If there ever was one fight that Tate shouldn’t have reverted back to her former moniker ‘Takedown’, it was this fight against Rousey. In many of her previous fights, Tate held her own in the stand-up with opponents who were far better strikers than Rousey; and despite being battered on the feet Tate wouldn’t telegraph her takedowns like she did against Rousey.
In spite of having success at keeping the feisty judoka at the end of her jab and out of Rousey’s preferred close-range, Tate inexplicably lunged into her opponent; who sent her flying through the air time-and-again.
In one of the most important fights of her career and the most important rivalries in MMA history, Tate gift-wrapped the fight and the UFC BW title to her nemesis Ronda Rousey. Always remember kids- Lunging in on a world-class Judoka is a bad strategy. Repeating that very mistake several times over the course of 3 rounds in an MMA fight is just plain stupid.