Last night, marked one of the wildest nights in MMA history. Conor McGregor and Holly Holm, two heavily favored fighters were both upset in dramatic fashion. Miesha Tate defeated women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm by submission in the fifth round of their fight. Soon after there fight ended, Nate Diaz took on brash-talking Conor McGregor and Diaz submitted McGregor in the second round to win the welterweight fight.
Ireland Native, McGregor, who won the featherweight championship back in December decided to jump weight classes soon after his victory. He opted to move up to 170 pounds (lightweight division) to fight replacement foe Diaz because of lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos’ foot injury. Well, let’s just say moving up in weight class did not go too well the talented McGregor.
Diaz, a former UFC lightweight title challenger was able to get the best of McGregor early on. McGregor tried take Diaz down with one his unique moves but Diaz was able counter and turn to his jiu jitsu specialty and deliver a deadly chokehold, which forced Mcgregor to tap out only 4 minutes into the second round. After the match, Diaz said “I knew I had it, my jiu jitsu’s always there when I hit the ground. I’m a warrior. There’s a new king, right here.” Diaz was very excited about his gut wrenching performance to take down the former featherweight champion.
As for the other upset at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Tate took down Holms in the final minutes of the final round crushing hopes of everyone possibly witnessing a Holm’s rematch with the great Ronda Rousey. This was Holm’s first fight since defeating Rousey back in November. Holm was able to give Tate a couple of punches and kicks in the early rounds, but Tate eventually responded with kicks and moves of her own and then would mount Holm from behind to take home the championship.
These were both devastating losses for both former champions, but we will see how these two respond to adversity. If you ask me, I am sure they will use this as motivation and will be back out there sooner than people think.
