The thing is this, Ronda has rubbed people the wrong way because she comes off as kind of self-entitled and mean spirited, and the backlash that she's getting, some of it is deserved and some of it is not. I think a lot of people that have never put on a pair of gloves, never competed at anything, never won at anything, they're starting to take shots. They're starting to say what a crappy fighter she is. She's not a crappy fighter. She's a one-dimensional fighter. She was the face of women's MMA and she put the game on the map. She should be applauded for that. If you want to say you don't like her persona and you're glad she lost, that's fine, but when you start trying to break down stuff that you don't have a clue of what you're talking about either, then you need to slow your roll and take a step back.
AMANDA NUNES VS. RONDA ROUSEY
My comments have been about her coaching. Her coaching hasn't been on par and ultimately she's the boss. She can hire and fire or change camps as she please because she is the boss of that; no one else is. I felt bad that she bought into a fraudulent guy. She looked worse in her fight with her stand up than she did against Holly Holm. So if she had this media blackout because she was concentrating on her craft, then what were you concentrating on? What were you doing? There is an old adage out there that's kind of bad, "Practice makes perfect." No, practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect, so if you're practicing bad habits, then you're still going to take those bad habits into the ring or cage and obviously that's what she's still doing. Even Amanda Nunes hopped on in the post-fight press conference bashing her coach. It might be something to that. You know something though, a lot of people have been bashing Edmond for her last two fights. You haven't seen any prominent coach come out and defend him; not one. If you said something about a Greg Jackson or one of those guys, you would have people coming out and defending them. Even if it was just like, "Hey, he's a good guy, he works hard, and he cares about his fighters." Even if it wasn't on technical issues, they would defend those guys. You don't hear any of that with this guy, so there might be something to it. When her mom is like, "Hey, this is not the dude she should be dealing with," look at her performance. It didn't get any better and I knew that. She is a frontrunner mentally and when she got punched, I knew it was going to go all bad from there and that's exactly what happened.
She had over a year to prepare and it doesn't appear nothing was addressed. Her foot placement was still off, her head was up in the air, and has anybody ever heard of a parry block not with your face? Parry the jab and block with your right hand. She got hurt with a hook. She didn't know what to do in any of the exchanges, so why are you prepping her and making her think she's this ultimate striker? Her game is suited to be the ultimate ground girl. Why were they not working on singles and doubles, chain wrestling and high crotch, where she could get her Judo throws and work her top game using striking to set that up? But you gotta have head movement. Why is she not changing levels? Why is her head in one place? It was just so many things that baffled me from a coaching standpoint that you never really saw improvement on. What you saw with Ronda was a little bit of fool's gold. You were dealing with a little bit of happenstance. When she beat Sara McMann, she caught her with a knee, but she got her takedown stuffed, she got hit with a right hand, her eyes kind of got big, and then she hit Sara with a knee to the liver. People thought the fight was stopped a little too soon, but that was kind of a happenstance. If they fought 10 times, that bout probably wouldn't go that way. When she fought Cat Zingano, Cat came in off of a layoff, wanted to be spectacular, tried to come out of the gate with something spectacular, and got caught in a transition and lost in 14 seconds. If they fought 10 times, it wouldn't play out like that. So she had those fights that were kind of happenstance. She did what she had to do and she won and you give her credit for doing that, but when you start to look at the technical aspect of it, it's like, "Okay, this doesn't mean she's this world-beater striker." And then she beats Bethe Correia. Bethe is really not that good. She's 5'3" and what did she do to earn a title shot? She beat all of Ronda's friends. She didn't beat Miesha, she didn't beat Sara or Amanda or any of the top echelon girls. She beat all of Ronda's friends who was outside of the top 15 and got a title shot. Ronda smokes her and everyone is like, "Oh, look at her striking!" No! You guys are buying into some stuff that ain't really there and when she faced two girls that can really strike, she got knocked out.
I don't think we see Ronda Rousey in the Octagon ever again. I thought win or lose that would be the last time we saw her fight. She's been talking about how she didn't want to do it for long. She's been talking about wanting to start a family. She's been talking about doing movies and she also said she didn't want to fight past 30 and that's approaching. There really is nothing left she can do. If she fought Amanda again, it would be the same result. Her psyche...she's a broken fighter now, but what you do give her credit for is she brought an Olympic pedigree to the Octagon and she took women's MMA to where they could headline a card and make a boatload of money. Without Ronda Rousey, you don't get Paige VanZant. Give her credit for that. Give her credit for being the face of MMA and taking it to another level, and now these girls, Amanda and others, can take it beyond that. I don't think she has anything from a fighter's standpoint that she shouldn't be proud of when she looks back at her career of what she accomplished. She was never a good striker and for her, she got caught up in a situation where she believed in somebody who couldn't deliver the goods for her. I think for Amanda Nunes and the UFC, moving forward, you just have to put her out there and let her fight. You have to possibly start preparing for life without Ronda. I think everyone knows her name now. But it's going to probably be like Anderson Silva in a sense, especially early. He didn't speak a lot of English and she speaks English. Sometimes it's difficult to understand her, but it's her second language. You have to let her dominance be her selling point; not looks or her sexual orientation, but her dominant performances is the selling point. Because as it stands right now, if Ronda doesn't fight again, she's taken two of the top 3 or 4 girls and retired them. She pretty much retired Miesha Tate, Shayna Baszler, and possibly Ronda Rousey. Her dominance is starting to remind me of Joanna [Jedrzejczyk], just not as well rounded. Joanna has that gas tank to where you know she can get grimy if she has to and she's a sharp shooter. Right now, you have to let Amanda Nunes' dominance be the selling point. No bells and whistles; just put people in front of her and watch her destroy them!
DOMINICK CRUZ VS. CODY GARBRANDT
Cody Garbrandt fought a complete, disciplined, and smart fight. I don't think anybody is surprised he won because he hits hard with both hands, so you knew going in he was a legitimate threat for the title, but you weren't expecting him to be as smart and as disciplined as he showed in that fight, and mainly because he never had to be in any of his fights, so we didn't know if that was part of his repertoire. The fact that he made Dominick Cruz lead was a great game plan. And in retrospect, you look at it and you say, "How many times has Dominick Cruz fought an Alpha Male guy?" At some point, they have to have somebody that can make him lead. Dominick doesn't have great power, so what do you want him to do with all of that herky-jerky style and all of that movement that he uses; you want him to lead so you can counter over the top of some of the things he does because you don't have to fear his power. If you walk into stuff, you can maximize his power because that's just the laws of physics. Cody was able to move out of the way. He was able to bait Dominick, frustrate and hurt him. He didn't fall for it. He didn't get overly excited or overzealous when he got the knockdowns. He made him get back up and did it all over again. Now can Cody hold on to the belt for a long period of time? That remains to be seen. You look at Chris Weidman after he beat Anderson Silva twice; he beat the greatest of all time and you think, "Man, this guy is going to hold the title for a long time." And then you see how many times it's changed hands in the 185-pound division, so I think time will tell. I like his chances because he's young and if he stays focused and disciplined, he can hold on to the title for awhile, but Dillashaw is going to have something to say about that, so we will have to wait and see.
T.J. DILLASHAW VS. JOHN LINEKER
John Lineker is one-dimensional and he's short. Here is a guy that spent most of his career at 125, but he to had a battle with the scale. It was hard for him to make 125 because of his stocky stature. He carries big power, but he's one-dimensional. If you can't get in range to throw that dimension, it's hard on you and that's kind of what Johny [Hendricks] faces. He really can't go to 185. His footwork is not good enough and he doesn't set anything up to get those bombs off and when you're fighting longer guys and you don't know how to move, it's going to be a long, long night. I expected T.J. Dillashaw, with his movement, to beat Lineker the way he did. It wasn't a surprise at all. We spoke before the event about him basing his career on slights and if you listen to his post-fight speech, he's still doing it. He feels like he's been fighting top flight competition, moreso than Cruz or Garbrandt, and I still have to wait. That's how he motivates himself and he don't like Dominick Cruz and that's where you get the personal name calling and stuff. Dominick has a way of occupying a lot of space in people's heads and T.J. Dillashaw is definitely renting out some space there.
We will see what the UFC matchmakers have in store; if Cruz get the immediate rematch or does T.J. Dillashaw get it using that angle. They are former training partners when he was with Alpha Male. Obviously there are some hard feelings there, so that can be an interesting build up for a showdown for the title. I think I would make Dillashaw-Garbrandt and let Cruz think about what he wants to do. Cruz is at that point. If I'm Cruz, this is what I do; I'd wait to get my rematch for a title with whoever, Garbrandt or Dillashaw. He's had injuries in the past. This is the most he's fought in a long time and he's getting to that point where he has to think, "Do I want to keep doing it?" He's excellent behind the mic. He has a bright future being a broadcaster, so if I was him, I would wait for the winner of that fight, challenge for the title, and if I don't win, call it a day.
JOHNY HENDRICKS VS. NEIL MAGNY
I look at Johny Hendricks as a person who doesn't want to do it anymore. He's not disciplined enough to make weight. I think missing weight this time kind of surprised him from his reaction. He seemed to think he was on. But you can't fluctuate and go up and down like that and expect to perform at a high level. It just destroys your body. At some point, you gotta call it a career. I mean, what, he's lost 4 in a row, he hasn't made weight in a year and a half, and it's just time to call it a night. He was a champion and I hate to see him go out like that. I know he gets a lot of criticism. There are a lot of jerks and crappy people in this business, but he's not one of them. He's actually a good dude and I hate that his legacy is going to end like this. They have a different weigh-in system now, you know that; you knew it was a Thursday weigh-in because it was a Friday pay-per-view, so you tailor your diet and your workouts and everything accordingly and he just wasn't prepared. Even in the fight, when he took Neil down, he just didn't have any energy to do anything with it, so it's just an indication that it's time. It's time to call it a career. He came from Oklahoma State wrestling. When Team Takedown first got him, he was kind of a throw-in in the deal. Jake Rosholt was supposed to be the man. He was supposed to be the guy that they built Team Takedown around and it ended up being Johny. Johny ended up becoming a world champion and there ain't nothing wrong with that. That's a pretty good career, so you know what, call it a day. I know he can go into coaching. There are other things he can do with his life. You're getting to that point anyway; you're getting into your mid-30's and you can't fight forever. He's not physically beat up where he has been getting knocked out, which causes head trauma; call it a night!
I really didn't see any controversy with the decision. I thought the first part of the first round, Neil was controlling it. Johny did take him down, but Johny almost got caught in a triangle at the end of the round. A lot of the work he had done was nullified by what Neil was doing off of the bottom, so you really can't argue with that. Johny clearly controlled the second round, but the third round was kind of the same as the first. He almost got caught in that triangle again. You should give people credit for submission attempts and almost pulling them off moreso, I think, then defending them. Johny didn't do what was needed.