Holly Holm has now lost the bantamweight MMA belt to Miesha Tate in the recent UFC 196 event held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Apparently, Holm was ahead of Tate on the scorecards during the first few rounds of the bout. Unfortunately, all of these didn’t matter when Tate was able to hold a rear-naked choke on the fifth round of the bout, leaving Holm no choice but to surrender.
That’s the thing about MMA. You could be ahead in one minute and tapping out the next.
Holm tried to shake Tate off and tried to fight off her contender’s hand until she was put to sleep even before she was able to tap out. According to Holm, the biggest factor that caused her loss was a lack of urgency.
“You know, I think that I just have to for me, any time in loss, I just have to be honest with myself. I feel like I knew I was ahead on the scorecards and honestly, maybe I felt like I was getting a little too complacent there instead of being there acting with that sense of urgency. She got in, I should’ve been fighting the hands before doing that. I let her get it way too tight before I tried to shuck her off. Just big mistake. Cost me everything tonight, but I’ll be back,” Holm said during the post-fight interview.
Holm had probably won the first, third and fourth rounds by using her powerful jabs, side kicks, and for most of the entire MMA fight, she threw out a takedown defense. Tate, on the other hand, was able to get a good footing in the second round with a takedown and some submission attempts. However, during the fifth round, Tate was able to see a loophole and took advantage of it.
“It isn’t easy, but it’s a growing experience. There’s always these odds on paper, I always say, but for me it’s always 50-50 when you get in there. There’s a winner and a loser and that’s all there is to it. Tonight I do feel like I was doing enough to win the fight. She had a great second round. I had 1, 3 and 4 and event 5 until I slipped up there. It’s a learning experience for me. I should’ve been fighting those hands right away. I should’ve just so not gotten so complacent. I kinda let my guard down a little too soon and it cost me the fight,” Holm said.