It was a huge night for women’s MMA Saturday, as “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey scored her fifth straight first round armbar victory and the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title over Miesha Tate. Rousey, who now assumes the mantle of the face of Strikeforce’s women’s division, wrenched Tate’s arm to an improbable angle and forced the tap at 4:27 of the first round.
The fight, which had grown into a legitimate dislike between the two ladies after a lot of trash talk and their incident at the weigh-ins, started with Tate coming out throwing punches and tagging Rousey. Rousey then immediately got a takedown and locked in a deep armbar. Tate survived the first armbar attempt and regained position as the two put on an impressive grappling display for the division. Later in the round, Rousey used a judo toss to get Tate to the mat before sinking the second armbar.
“I didn’t talk my way into that” said a proud Rousey to Mauro Ranallo after the fight.
Rousey’s first challenger for the title was determined earlier in the night, as Sarah Kaufman defeated Alexis Davis by majority decision in a scintillating encounter that thrilled the crowd and threatened to overshadow the main event. The fight was a stand-up war which saw the Port Colborne, Ontario resident Davis show a ton of heart despite the precision strikes from Victoria, B.C.’s Kaufman. The aftermath of the fight saw both women bloodied as the Columbus crowd cheered on.
“That’s what you guys want to see, right? A fight? You don’t want to see two girls parading around not fighting, just talking. I’m going to come, I’m going to fight, I’m going to have that title. It’s my title.” a jubilant Kaufman said in her post-fight interview.
The Kaufman-Davis war was in stark contrast to the co-main event of Josh Thomson taking on KJ Noons. Thomson held down Noons for three rounds before winning a unanimous decision in a plodding affair that saw Thomson refer to as “shit” repeatedly in his post-fight interview. Thomson can console himself with the knowledge that his victory does give him another shot at rival and Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez.
Kazuo Misaki made an impact in his welterweight debut, going the distance with England’s Paul ‘Semtex” Daley and notching a split decision win. The former Pride stand-out Misaki kept Daley on the back foot with his striking for the entire fight, forcing Daley to uncharacteristically try repeatedly to take the fight to the ground. Daley did land an elbow that opened a deep cut over Miskai’s eye but the Japanese warrior continued to press the action.
In other main card action, Lumumba Sayers handed Scott Smith his fourth straight loss. Sayers submitted Smith with a first round arm-traingle in Smith’s return to middleweight. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza also scored an arm-triangle submission victory in the third round over late replacement Bristol Marunde.
