UFC 208’s main event — a newly formed featherweight title fight between Germaine de Randamie and Albuquerque’s own Holly Holm — didn’t pan out the way the former champion expected.
On Saturday night, Holm lost a unanimous decision, 48-47, to de Randamie (7-3) in a highly controversial ending.
Illegal shots after the bell were fired off by de Randamie at the end of rounds two and three. But neither instance resulted in a point deduction or disqualification.
Instead, the newly-crowned women’s featherweight champion de Randamie blamed the late punches on something else.
“It was in the heat of the moment,” de Randamie said. “I apologized. I’m not like that.”
Holm has now lost three straight in the UFC, bringing her overall MMA record to 10-3, and just 3-3 since joining the highly touted organization.
But despite the fight swaying in de Randamie’s favor, social media exploded with complaints about the way referee Todd Anderson handled the extra curricular action with what many considered to be cheap shots.
“Am I being biased or does anyone else think the ref did a lousy job of enforcing the rules and that Holly got robbed?” UFC bantamweight fighter Leslie Smith tweeted.
UFC middleweight fighter Eric Spicely also joined in, voicing his criticism of the referee.
“It’s the ref’s job to protect the fighters,” he said in a tweet. “Just like when someone gets knocked out the ref is supposed to jump in to prevent more.”
Chuck Mindenhall of MMAFighting.com said in his post-fight analysis that Anderson should have taken some kind of action, saying there were multiple occurrences that altered the fight.
The first round started off with both fighters appearing hesitant to rush one another. De Randamie countered Holm at seemingly every turn when she tried to push forward with combos, giving the Dutch fighter the round on all three judges’ score cards.
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Holm pushed the pace a little more in the second, throwing oblique kicks and setting up combos when she could. But every time she stepped in for a punch, she was again met with counter punches from de Randamie.
The Albuquerque native was able to clinch her opponent in the round, but didn’t get the better end of the exchanges from that position, with de Randamie landing knees to Holm’s body.
At the end of the second, though, the first series of late shots hit Holm after the bell, wobbling the former bantamweight champion.
Holm went back to her corner to shake off the late punches, and came into the third round aggressive. Holm eventually landed a head kick on de Randamie near the end of the round, buckling her opponent, but it wasn’t enough to knock her out in the closing seconds.
After the bell rang again at the end of the third, de Randamie landed a combo on Holm — which left many in shock.
(Anderson) issued a warning to de Randamie instead of deducting a point for the second offense, a decision that potentially cost Holm the fight.
Holm won both the fourth and fifth rounds, though most of the action wasn’t to the crowd’s liking. The pace of the fight slowed dramatically and much of the final rounds saw the fighters engaged in clinching.
Holm said she thought she did enough to win the fight, and seemed surprised to fall in a unanimous 48-47 decision to de Randamie.
“I felt like I had three rounds,” Holm said in the post-fight conference. “I also had her rocked twice and didn’t capitalize on it, and that’s my own fault.”
Holm also addressed the late punches that her opponent threw, saying she felt they were “intentional.”
It is unclear who her next potential opponent might be. Holm, who is 0-3 since knocking out Ronda Rousey in 2015, said she is in a spot where she will take whatever fight the UFC lines up.
Matthew Narvaiz is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers women’s basketball and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz
