The thing about “new” is that it is supposed to be fresh, unblemished, perfect. And easy. New is supposed to be carefree and undemanding of its owners.
If only the UFC matchmakers had it that good.
After years of hemming on the idea of a women’s featherweight division, the promotion finally caved and established a belt, but only after they were left in a lurch and with few other options. It was a reluctant undertaking, and the bungling of the booking left long-term ramifications that are still resounding.
At Saturday night’s UFC 208, the echo continued to reverberate.
Sure, the UFC finally crowned a champion when Germaine de Randamie defeated Holly Holm in a unanimous decision, but it was a moment that wasn’t close to the positive it should have been. Instead, the organization was left with a controversial outcome, a falling star, a champion ready to sidestep her first challenger and a top contender still facing a potential performance-enhancing drug violation.
These three women are the entirety of a division, meaning the division is in total and complete disarray.
First things first.
Holm may end up being the biggest story of the night after suffering her third straight defeat. Once a clear golden girl heir to Ronda Rousey, Holm has lost every bit of momentum she earned on that legendary night in Australia.
One year ago at this time, Holm was on top of the world. A few months removed from that shocking knockout over Rousey, she had upped her profile with a series of appearances on major media shows, and on the verge of following Rousey into superstardom.
Better yet, she assured the fight world that fighting was her life, that nothing would distract her from her focus.
But then she faced a stunner of her own, submitting to Miesha Tate late in a fight she had been handily winning, before losing an uninspired decision to Valentina Shevchenko last July. The stretch marked the first two-fight losing streak of her combat sports career.
On Saturday, she wasn’t completely outclassed by De Randamie—and in fact, she had the fight’s most significant strike, a straight left that dropped De Randamie to her knees in the fifth. But for at least the early part of the five-rounder, Holm had trouble finding her opponent and ate stiff counter strikes for her trouble.
Time after time, Holm failed in her takedown tries—she went a woeful 0-of-9, according to FightMetric—and the inability to meaningfully threaten De Randamie there limited her offense.
The decision was controversial, but that it ends like this, at the hands (and feet) of De Randamie is as big a surprise. As a UFC entity, the Dutch fighter wasn’t anonymous, but she wasn’t far off. Despite a stunningly successful kickboxing career, her time as a mixed martial artist had been mostly inconsistent.
Until now, she had been unable to translate her mythical 37-0 kickboxing background to the cage in any kind of reliable manner, particularly against fighters who would not be scared off by what she had accomplished in the past. Most times she had stepped up to experienced competition she either struggled (split-decision win over Julie Kedzie) or lost (Amanda Nunes).
As a result, she had never really even established herself as a serious title threat as a bantamweight.
Even on Saturday, she needed a bit of help. At the end of the second round, De Randamie and Holm were exchanging, and a moment after the horn sounded to signify the close of action, she fired off a right hand that wobbled Holm.
Incensed, Holm’s corner called for a point-deduction, but referee Todd Anderson took no action. The next round, the same situation, another De Randamie right hand after the bell.
Again, Holm’s corner demanded a point be taken away, but Anderson instead issuing a warning.
Had he followed through on a deduction, the fight—which all three judges scored 48-47—would have been ruled a draw.
“It was in [the] heat of [the] moment, I apologize,” De Randamie said. “The first time (the ref) said it was on the buzzer, it wasn’t late. It was in the heat of [the] moment. I apologize. I’m not like that.”
That was certainly of little comfort to Holm.
"You look at the scoring, and you look at what the ref has to do, and yes, that could have changed the whole way the fight went," said Holm. "But I look at what I could have done differently, and it could have changed the fight, too."
The matchup was a strange one from the get-go. After years of flirting with longtime featherweight queen Cris “Cyborg” Justino, the UFC signed her and asked her to go through multiple weight cuts in trying to push her towards 135. Justino never made it all the way down to the bantamweight limit, but her efforts went in vain after the UFC booked a featherweight title fight without her.
To be fair, the promotion did try to include Justino in the inaugural pairing, but after she asked for an extra month to recover from her difficult September 2016 weight cut, the UFC balked and quickly moved on without her.
For those that pay attention to such developments, it immediately put a fugazi stamp on the UFC 208 proceedings.
Now, De Randamie is the champion, but what does it mean? There may not be a single MMA fan alive who thinks she is the best women’s featherweight on earth. Not one. Even if Justino comes with a caveat, and even if it’s a huge one, she has just been too good for too long to ignore.
So the UFC is effectively asking fans to live in a world of make-believe where this belt isn’t just a place-holder.
Adding a degree of difficulty to that is De Randamie herself. Just seconds after winning, she was asked by UFC announcer Joe Rogan about the possibility of facing Cyborg, who happened to be in attendance at Brooklyn, New York’s, Barclays Center for the show.
“You know, I want to fight everybody,” the Dutch fighter said. “If she’s the one I have to fight, I’ll fight her. Right now I need surgery on my hand, so I’ll get surgery.”
She went on to say that this surgery was something she really needed, saying she had broken her hand. That sounded reasonable until she explained that she’d injured it against Larissa Pacheco. Two years ago.
And so, while the UFC would like to say the stage is set for what comes next, that’s not even close to the case. It’s bad enough that Cyborg has to address her problems with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to get eligible again, and that she could be facing a suspension; now, suddenly, De Randamie is ready to disappear for a while. And Holm? She’s not completely out of the mix, but she’s fading fast.
It's rare that something so new is so problematic, but for the UFC, the start of the featherweight division was a nightmare kind of night.
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