The UFC held a pay per view last night in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile area. Normally the UFC pay per views are on Saturdays, but I guess they didn’t want to go up against the New Year’s Eve festivities. This was UFC 207 and the main event on the card was the return of former Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
Rousey hasn’t fought since November of 2015 when she suffered her first loss to Holly Holm. Holm also won the Batamweight title in that fight. The title has changed hands a couple of times since Holm beat Rousey for it. Going into last nights fight the title holder was Brazillian Amanda Nunes. Nunes won the Batamweight title from Miesha Tate by submission in July of this year and has a career record of 13-4 coming into the Rousey fight. Nunes came in on a four fight win streak, but was still a heavy underdog according to Las Vegas odds.
If you’re a gambler and with the fight being in Las Vegas I’m sure there was some money bet on this fight. You needed to bet on the underdog Nunes to cash a winning ticket. Nunes made quick work of the former champion Rousey. Nunes picked up a very quick win by TKO when referee Herb Dean stopped the fight just 48 seconds after it started. This was the quickest victory of Nunes’ career.
Nunes landed a very early jab on Rousey and then went immediately to the right hand. She is known as one of the harder hitters in the division, and Rousey looked hurt from basically the first exchange. Rousey fell backward to the cage and then leaned forward to try to wrap Nunes up. Nunes shoved her back and continued to plod forward. Rousey managed to land one left hook as Nunes aggressively pursued her, but it didn’t have much effect on the champ. Once Rousey was hurt, she was an easy target for Nunes. Rousey did not shoot for a takedown and had no way of exiting Nunes’ boxing range. While Rousey was never unconscious in this fight like she was after the Holm kick, but she was clearly out on her feet when the fight was stopped. Rousey was able to walk out of the Octagon without assistance after the stoppage.
Nunes now holds the UFC female bantamweight record for most finishes inside the first round. She was tied with Rousey at five coming into the fight.
Even though it was Nunes who won the fight the attention quickly turned to Rousey and what she will do after her 2nd consecutive loss. Rousey did not address the media after the loss, but her agent Brad Slater did say “It’s too soon to say anything about the future. I don’t want to speak for her. She’s going to take some time to process this.” When UFC President Dana White was asked if he thought Rousey would fight again he said “I don’t know. Ronda obviously needs to go home and take some time. She’s very rich. She doesn’t need to fight anymore. She’s super competitive. Maybe she wants to, I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.”
UFC 207 was a sellout in the area as the attendance was announced as 18,533 for a gate of $4.75 million dollars. It was the most attended UFC event in Las Vegas. It was reported that Rousey made $3 million dollars for her comeback fight while Nunes was paid $200,000.
What do you guys think; will we see Ronda Rousey fight in the Octagon again?
Now I’m not the biggest college football fan and we don’t talk much about it on the Sports Time Radio podcast, but there are two semi-final bowl games today. The Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl is the first game on the schedule this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. This game features the #1 Alabama Crimson Tide against the #4 Washington Huskies. The second game is the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. This game features the #2 Clemson Tigers taking on the #3 Ohio State Buckeyes. The winners of these two games will advance to the CFP National Championship Game presented by AT&T on January 9th. This years CFP championship game will be played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Florida.
I’ve seen that Alabama is a pretty big favorite to advance to the championship game. The last betting line I saw had Alabama as a 14 point favorite over Washington. It looks as though the oddsmakers think the second game will be much closer. The betting line I saw on that game had Clemson as a 2 1/2 point favorite over Ohio State.
Alabama has won 4 of the last 6 National Championships while Ohio State won the title in 2014. Washington was 12-0 in 1991, but the University of Miami Fl. won the national title. Clemson the last time Clemson wo the national title was 1981. This is the 4th year for the College Football Playoff; so when Washington just missed winning a title and Clemson won their last title the championship was awarded by popular vote and there where different polls awarding titles.
I’m wondering if last night was the first time ever in an NBA game that a father and son where both ejected. In the Los Angeles Clippers 140-116 loss to the Houston Rockets both Clippers head coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers and his son Clippers guard Austin Rivers where both ejected in the first half of the game.
Austin was the first of the Rivers to be ejected. After Austin missed a lay up he lightly bumped into referee J.T. Orr and was tossed. After being ejected Austin yelled at Orr and waved his arms at him. A Clippers employee had to lead Austin off the court. Austin tried to go back at Orr when he got to the edge of the court, but that employee held Rivers back.
Doc’s ejection came during a timeout. Doc approached lead official Jason Phillps and was questioning why Marreese Speights wasn’t awarded free throws when the basket was made following Austin Rivers missed lay up. Doc thought that the referees had called and an 1 on the play, but the Clippers weren’t given any free throws. Doc called the timeout himself before he was ejected so he could discuss the situation with the officials.
This is the 3rd time this season Doc Rivers has been ejected and this was the 4th career ejection for Austin Rivers.
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