MELBOURNE – UFC 193 at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium was a huge success, as the organisation hit a gate record at the venue and set a new benchmark for the number of fans at an event.
Some 56,214 raucous fans turned up, breaking the promotion’s previous attendance record of 55,724, set at UFC 129 on April 30, 2011.
They also witnessed history as a brutal head kick allowed former boxing world champion Holly Holm to knock out pin-up girl Ronda Rousey.
Rousy was brazen, bordering on arrogant, in her attack, as 34-year-old Holm let the fight come to her, keeping her opponent at a controlled distance at Etihad Stadium.
The kick, set up by some heavy left hands from Holm, sent an unconscious Rousey with a badly split lip crashing to the canvas then straight into hospital for the night.
Her representatives denied she had a concussion, despite UFC President Dana White saying as much in a press conference.
The irony was thick as White’s golden girl suffered her first loss inside the Octagon, after she had entered, as usual, to the soaring vocals of Joan Jett screaming “I don’t give a damn about my reputation”.
But while it might have been the fall of a champion, the rematch is already being talked about.
