Miesha Tate on Ronda Rousey: Nine times out of 10, wrestling trumps judo

http://www.mmamania.com/2012/2/11/27...ng-trumps-judo

If this feels like a familiar dance, that's because it is.

You should know the story by now. Miesha Tate is the Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion and will defend her title at Strikeforce in Columbus on March 3 against Ronda Rousey, an Olympian judo player with just a few fights under her belt. They were all impressive one minute armbar finishes but how much can one glean from so little action?

It's rather simple for Tate -- wrestling beats judo almost every time. Problem solved.

"I think nine times out of 10, wrestling trumps judo. There's a lot of things I can do as a wrestler to just shut her judo down, nullify it. And my grappling is world class. So far she's shown she has an armbar and she lasts about a minute. She seems real desperate to get the armbar right off the bat, so that leads me to believe maybe she's not well-rounded or doesn't feel confident in her other skills, which I know I am. I've been in the championship rounds, had 20 fights, had six years of experience. I'm really confident going into this fight and I'm excited."

Easier said than done, of course, as Rousey's previous opponents can attest to. World class grappling is all well and good but everyone makes mistakes and against a shark like "Rowdy," it could cost Tate her arm.

Literally.

The bigger story here is that this is likely the biggest women's fight since Gina Carano was soundly defeated by Cristiane Santos all the way back in 2009. So it's kind of a big deal.

Against an Olympic medalist like Rousey? Someone that actually uses her judo in MMA, I dont think wrestling trumps judo at all.

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Originally Posted by Brent Smith

Against an Olympic medalist like Rousey? Someone that actually uses her judo in MMA, I dont think wrestling trumps judo at all.

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Totally agree!!! Rousey's Judo is on another level on anything Tate has ever seen or been up against!

Takedown Tate FTW!!

her Judo is not the same as the usual Judo in MMA forsure. Tate needs to use keep this on the feet as long as possible take Ronda out of her game maybe break her down mentally. Maybe. In the 3rd or later. A 1st round shoot out goes to Ronda. IMO

Sanchez said the same thing about Karo's "judo crap," until Karo helped him earn some frequent flyer miles.

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Originally Posted by Brent Smith

Against an Olympic medalist like Rousey? Someone that actually uses her judo in MMA, I dont think wrestling trumps judo at all.

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We've heard the "olympic judo champ" line a million times. Seriously other than karo parisyan no one has been able to use judo that effectively in mma. Of course Ronda is doing great so far and id say she's better than all those japanese judo people but still she hasn't really faced anyone decent yet. This will be a good test, too bad cyborg wont happen anytime soon either. I could easily see miesha taking her down and wining by a 3 round decision. We have no clue how ronda is off her back or how well she does fighting at 135 for the time and fighting more than a round. lots of ifs.

Takedown Tate ftw!!!! Allthough Ronda is hotter... well they are both cute, man I wanna see this fight way more than I wanted to see Lesnar/Overeem.

on another note, looking at karos record all his loses are to good grapplers or wrestlers who can obviously deal with the judo, including GSP, sherk, sanchez and hallman.

It'll be close, wrestling nullifies alot of styles but it depends on how good the other person's art is (TKD, Jitsui, etc).

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Originally Posted by DBK

We've heard the "olympic judo champ" line a million times. Seriously other than karo parisyan no one has been able to use judo that effectively in mma. Of course Ronda is doing great so far and id say she's better than all those japanese judo people but still she hasn't really faced anyone decent yet. This will be a good test, too bad cyborg wont happen anytime soon either. I could easily see miesha taking her down and wining by a 3 round decision. We have no clue how ronda is off her back or how well she does fighting at 135 for the time and fighting more than a round. lots of ifs.

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Karo was no where near olympic level. Either is Fedor, but Judo seemed to fair well for him, seing as how he was considered the baddest man on the planet for a long period of time. Before I hear Fedor is Sambo not Judo. Know that in Russian at most clubs Sambo and Judo are taught synonymously with each other. There have been several Judoka that have had success in MMA, Rick Hawn is making a hell of a run in Bellator, and I wouldn't be suprised to seem him in the UFC soon.

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Originally Posted by DBK

We've heard the "olympic judo champ" line a million times. Seriously other than karo parisyan no one has been able to use judo that effectively in mma. Of course Ronda is doing great so far and id say she's better than all those japanese judo people but still she hasn't really faced anyone decent yet. This will be a good test, too bad cyborg wont happen anytime soon either. I could easily see miesha taking her down and wining by a 3 round decision. We have no clue how ronda is off her back or how well she does fighting at 135 for the time and fighting more than a round. lots of ifs.

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Regardless if her competition has been less than stellar, shes been able to use her judo in each one of her fights. Which any other judoka seems to forget how to use it or havent adapted to no gi throws. The cool thing about Ronda is you can tell she has that judoka killer instinct with the need to finish a fight quickly (im sure you know that in judo you have a very limited time to work on the ground before they stand you up). So even if Tate scores a TD she better keep tight or she'll lose a limb.

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Originally Posted by DBK

on another note, looking at karos record all his loses are to good grapplers or wrestlers who can obviously deal with the judo, including GSP, sherk, sanchez and hallman.

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Karo isnt Rousey to start. Karo almost ended his fight with GSP with a kimura sweep that hes famous for. The loss to Sanchez was WAR which he dunked Sanchez on his head at least 3 times (with that judo shit that doesnt work, according to Sanchez). Id have to rewatch the fight but Im pretty sure it was a lot closer than the unanimous decision the judges gave it. And the fight against Hallman was well after he was any good anymore. Which that fight was Hallman being pushed up against the fence (without karo even attempting a throw) till the ref separates them and Hallman landing a big punch. That was his first (and last) fight back after he got kicked out for no showing to weigh ins for his fight against Hazelett.
So yes Karo did lose to these guys but not one of them was able to truly nullify Karo's judo. Also if you look at Karo's record just in the UFC he had 1 submission win (not including the one to strikes) at that was in his debut.
Rousey is 100% armbars so I hope Tate is working her armbar defense

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Originally Posted by Chris Herzog

Karo was no where near olympic level. Either is Fedor, but Judo seemed to fair well for him, seing as how he was considered the baddest man on the planet for a long period of time. Before I hear Fedor is Sambo not Judo. Know that in Russian at most clubs Sambo and Judo are taught synonymously with each other. There have been several Judoka that have had success in MMA, Rick Hawn is making a hell of a run in Bellator, and I wouldn't be suprised to seem him in the UFC soon.

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When was the last time fedor used a judo throw in a fight though? must have been in the pride days. and perfect example, fedor smashed olympic gold judo medalist satoshi ishii in his last fight. ishii wasnt able to clinch to use judo once. akiyama, omigawa and a whole list of other guys i can think of were all expected to beat people with their judo. Now i love judo and use it too but i still think for no gi wrestling is the best base. I think the hardest is really adapting the gi judo to no gi well, with karo being the best at it and ronda doing a dam good job too. Still, I can see miesha nullifying ronda's judo.

I also think the level of competition has everything to do with it. Take another fighter from any martial art that was good at one thing, such as stefan struve, paul sass, palhares (although hes still successfully doing one thing) for submissions for example or any undefeated fighter that was good at one thing KO's or subs. Generally once they reach the top of their division they need to start getting better in other areas in their games because at the top level that one thing they are good at doesn't necessarily work anymore. Demian maia is another example. For example when budd hitt rousey insta clinched and was able to get her down, but what if miesha hit her and she wasnt able to drag her down. she might be in trouble. or if she gets doubled legged thats possible too. always gsp gnped karo pretty bad even though the kimura was close. in my opinion from what ive seen in mma fights, alot of judo base guys will have trouble vs the wrestler with the solid single and double leg.

cant wait for this fight.

come to think of it, the coolest judo ive seen used in the ufc lately, was by tim boetsch, jon jones and dong hyun kim.

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Originally Posted by DBK

When was the last time fedor used a judo throw in a fight though? must have been in the pride days. and perfect example, fedor smashed olympic gold judo medalist satoshi ishii in his last fight. ishii wasnt able to clinch to use judo once. akiyama, omigawa and a whole list of other guys i can think of were all expected to beat people with their judo. Now i love judo and use it too but i still think for no gi wrestling is the best base. I think the hardest is really adapting the gi judo to no gi well, with karo being the best at it and ronda doing a dam good job too. Still, I can see miesha nullifying ronda's judo.

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You're assuming Judo is only throws. Countering throwing, takedown defense, body positioning, base ,posture and groundfighting are all parts of Judo all which they use during thier fights. The reason Ishii wasn't able to use his Judo was largely becasue Fedor's Judo neutralized it. He knew what to avoid to prevent the clinch and smash Ishii.

I don't think Miesha Tate understands what "world class" means.