spin wrote on Jul 11th, 2016 at 12:59am:Miesha did get her butt kicked, but it was no laughing matter, and nothing to be ashamed about either. It was well known that Amanda is a fast starter and and a hard hitter, and on the contrary, Miesha is a slow starter. So Miesha had danger early, and that's how it turned out. She came out a bit lazy, and got caught, and then Amanda didn't let up on the pace. That sort of thing happens in MMA. Nunes lost to Cat Zingano, who got her butt kicked last night by Julianna Pena. Does that mean that Pena can beat Nunes? Not necessarily.
That was tough to watch. For as good and technically sound Miesha was against Holly avoiding get punched solidly by somebody you would think was a more dangerous puncher than Amanda, she got nailed early. The first or second punch Nunes landed is probably what busted Miesha's nose and that was it. We've talked about it before, MMA (and boxing) is all about match ups. The way this fight went down so decisively it's tough to think a rematch would go any differently. Amanda starts fast and is aggressive. That isn't changing. Miesha is the one that needs to change. Defensively against Amanda you need a lot of head movement so you're not a target for her. She needs to be able to survive that first 5 minutes without getting hurt badly and take the fight to where she gets stronger and her opponent doesn't. Holly being more tactical and not as aggressive is a good match up for Miesha. Not sure how a Holly/Amanda match would shape up. Got to think Juliann Pena is next for Amanda.
Disagree though with your assertion of Cat Zingano "getting her butt kicked" by Pena. She lost, yes, but that was much more a grappling than a striking match. Neither one had any noticeable facial marks after the fight. Those two split the first two rounds and Pena won the third round pretty much by staying on top of Cat and keeping her neutralized. Cat was able to reverse that but only when there was about 15 seconds left in the fight. Now that is a fight that could easily go the other way in a rematch.
Any which way you slice it this sure makes the women's bantamweight division entertaining even without Ronda, whom if she does come back won't be until later this year or early next year as she underwent knee surgery again not long ago.