Ronda Rousey Opens as Massive Favourite Over Holly Holm

Published on August 22nd, 2015 12:28 am EST
Earlier today, the UFC shocked many when they announced that Ronda Rousey will be making her next Bantamweight title defense against Holly Holm at UFC 195 on January 2nd, 2016. Many people had assumed that Miesha Tate would be getting the next shot at the title, as she recently won a #1 contender's eliminator fight. The plans were changed, however, and Rousey will now be squaring off against Holly Holm in January.

As you can imagine, Ronda Rousey has opened as a very big favourite to beat Holly Holm. Here are the current betting odds:

Holly Holm, +950
Ronda Rousey, -1450

These odds mean that if Holm and Rousey fought a total of 100 times, Rousey would win approximately 93 or 94 times out of 100. Holm, on the other hand, would likely win just 9 or 10 times out of 100. There are many people who would call that number high, however.

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Ronda Rousey has been on an absolute tear as of late, destroying the likes of Cat Zingano and Bethe Correia in extremely short order. As a matter of fact, Rousey's last three fights have lasted a total of less than 2 minutes - CUMULATIVELY.

Holly Holm is known for her strong striking/kickboxing game, though her grappling game is extremely underwhelming. It is hard to imagine any way that Rousey loses this fight - as soon as it goes to the ground, you would have to think that it would be over. In addition, Holm hasn't been knocking people out in the UFC - if she can't knock out Rousey, how can she possibly hope to win over the course of a 5-round title fight?

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Holly Holm and her camp seem to be particularly confident that she can win. What do you think - does Holm stand a chance?