Ronda Rousey had one of her best showings despite being pushed past the first round for the first time. The UFC 168 co-main event had her squaring off with arch-nemesis, Meisha Tate.
Full analysis on Rousey and Tate’s takedowns with animated gifs below.
Round 1
0:15 – Sumi Gaeshi (corner reversal)
Ronda uses a classic setup with a fake uchi mata to get Tate onto her left foot, and quickly sits under and scoops the leg with her foot, rolls and kicks Tate over.
0:56 kuchiki taoishi (one hand throw down/knee pick)
Rousey times Tate’s left leg kick and grabs a hold for a knee pick takedown.
1:25 Kosoto gake – outside hook
Tate scores a very nice outside hook or kosoto gake from a double leg type grip.
3:17 uchi mata – inner thigh throw
Tate goes for an outside hook again but this time gets countered with an uchi mata. Rousey uses the Tate’s momentum and leg position, turns into the direction of Tate’s throw, lifts Tate’s leg and flips her to the mat.
4:00 -uchi mata – inner thigh throw
Tate makes her third attempt for the outside hook. Her grip is high up on Rousey which allows her to throw her again with uchi mata.
Round 2
0:08 – ko uchi gari – foot sweep
Rousey clinches up with her usual headlock control and left wrist. She fakes an uchi mata to get Tate to react backwards and then sweeps out her foot.
0:31 – harai goshi (sweeping hip throw)
Tate shoots for a takedown and is countered with a crushing harai goshi. Again, Rousey uses Tate’s momentum against her by turning, getting her hips in tossing her over.
Note the grip: Rousey’s right hand gripping Tate’s left elbow. Her left hand is just on Tate’s back.
Slow motion of the harai goshi. Rousey hops off her leg at the last second to land on Tate for extra impact.
1:00 kuchiki taoishi (one hand throw down/knee pick)
Ronda leads in with a left jab and combines it with the single leg knee pick, she can’t quite get it and Tate tries to counter with an uchi mata of her own but Ronda smothers her with heavy hips.
2:25 uki goshi – floating hip throw / tai o toshi – body drop
Ronda let’s Tate push away from the cage to get her momentum coming forwards and snaps a sharp Uki Goshi/Tai o toshi with an undertook and elbow grip. This places Ronda in a nice modified scarf hold position. Notice her right arm is under Tate’s armpit rather than the headlock style (kesa gatame). This is much safer and there is less risk of getting her back taken.
Round 3
0:38 – sumi gaeshi (corner reversal)
The second attempt at Sumi gaeshi, again with an uchi mata to unbalance Tate. Tate has good body awareness and hip movement and is able to stay on top. Rousey gets her guard and begins the juji-roll armbar to inevitably finish the match.
Finish – Juji roll armbar
Interestingly Rousey can’t get her right leg over Tate’s head but clamps her legs together and is still able to finish the armbar.
Rousey breaks Tate’s grip by rolling over towards the head. Rousey shows perfect technique keeping the arm against her chest and extending her hips upward
What was your favourite throw of the night?
Post in the comments below!
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ArtOfGrappling 
Definitely loved the harai!
harai also. great work on analysis and commentary!
Agreed! Harai goshi with the hop for extra impact! 😀
This was well done. Only issue I have is that at 1:25 of R1 I would argue Tate used kosoto gake, not kosoto gari as it was more of a hooking motion than a reaping or blocking one.
Thanks, Joel and your right it is completely a hooking motion which would make it a gake.
Tai Otoshi. (Too bad camera did not catch the throw from better angle)
That Harai goshi looks more like a Hane-makikomi.
I’m glad somebody said it Donald. My go to throw is Harai Makikomi and I was surprised when I saw it in slow motion after watching the fight again.
It was a great match … Rousey did get a lot of take downs … my thought was Tate may of been better if she went toe to toe instead of trying what she did … but easy for me to say I was not the one facing a black belt in judo
her uchi’s set up alot of her game
Great article on the clinic Ronda put on the other night.
Bóq Bóóóq Bóóóq Bóq…chikens!!!!!
The harai goshi was sheer poetry. Beautiful.
uchi mata.
I liked all of Ronda’s throws. The harai goshi (sweeping hip throw) at 0:31 of the second round probably did the most damage because RR lifted her leg off the mat to allow her full body weight to land on M.Tate.
I want to see more Judoka enter MMA, like RR, Rick Hawn, Manny Gamburyan, etc., to counter all the wrestlers and kickboxers and dominate the sport.
I wish more high level judoka would get into MMA as well. It just seems like there is such gaping hole in the MMA skill set right now in terms of takedowns from any grip and any position which is where judo fits in perfectly.
idk what tate was thinking. im pretty sure her camp’s gameplan was to keep a distance and pick at her. all she ended up doing is trying to bull rush her and close the distance which is where judokas are the most lethal. top notch judo display from rousey nonetheless
The 2nd round harai goshi I believe was beautifully done and my favorite of the night. Her Judo precision is without question though.
Harai O goshi!!! that was a beautiful throw. she put on a clinic of judo, it was great!! Great job Ronda.
The first throw is a yoko satemi waza not sumi gaeshi I think! Side sacrifice throw!
no, definitely a henka sumi gaeshi (variation or changed technique). You can see her foot inserted into Tate’s inner thigh to do the lift. Yoko Sutemi Waza are a group of throws rather than one specific throw (yoko gake, yoko guruma, yoko otoshi, etc) – sumi gaeshi is normally classified as a mae sutemi waza (straight back) but this variation changes the angle. The key here is what is doing the throwing, and whiel the starting direction is yoko the motion is gaeshi (reversal), and to the corner (sumi) using the foot
Thanks for clarifying, Kelly! It looked familiar when I saw it. Nolan and I call it the “Kelly sumi gaeishi” with the uchi mata setup 😝
Thanks for translating!
Harai Goshi for the sheer totality of it.
I liked the sumi geisha , you don’t see that in mma , pure technique
my fav throw is Ronda throwing meisha outta the no.1 spot hahahaha!!!!
lol!
Fantastic throws.
If I may nitpick, I don’t think the throw at 0:31 of round 2 was Harai Goshi.
Harai Goshi is a hip technique. The opponent spins around the hip and the leg catches the leg to prevents the opponent from side stepping.
Here she is keeping her hips outside her opponent’s body and using her leg above Tate’s knee as the fulcrum, which would make the technique Ashi Guruma, if I am not mistaken.
Either way, it was definitely my favorite throw of the fight. Probably was the throw of the year too.
Nice observation – you could be right. The essence of Ashi Guruma is the wheeling of the opponent over the leg (as opposed to sweeping), and so upper body rotation. That rotation seems to have happened here – although others would argue it was a throw that started as harai goshi but then went into more of a makikomi style due to (out of necessity, no criticism intended!) the lack of grip. Either way – nice ippon!
Yeah, great Ippon.
For the Makikomi hypothesis, I don’t think so. She reaches back with her arm but she tosses Miesha instead of wrapping her around her back. The principle of the throw here is a wheeling action over the knee. Anyway, it’s just nitpicking.
It really was one hell of a throw. I didn’t even think we could pull this one off without the gi.
I would honestly say that it is more O guruma since the sweep is at the knee rather than down near the ankle, Just me though. And the Uki Goshi looks more like just a soto makikomi. Just my observations, I could be wrong.
I hesitated between the two, but in the Kodokan tachiwaza video, Ashi Guruma is done at the knee level and O Guruma is done at hips level so I went with Ashi Guruma.
IMHO, the “Uki Goshi” is a straight Tai Otoshi, because she is clearly not using her hip as a fulcrum in that throw, even if her hand is in the back. Without the Gi, the deep underhook is one of the best grip she can get, but as long as the hip is not used, it’s not a hip technique.
It is definitely not Soto Makikomi though. For Soto makikomi, she would have to lock her left arm over Miesha’s and wrap Miesha around her back, which is clearly not what she does.
Like uchimata and sumi gaeshi
I would have rather seen a gushi bukkake on rousey and tate.
Go to hell, creep.
Amazing display of Olympic Medal winning Judo. She really seems to like that spiderweb control.
Thanks for stopping by Julio, nice to have you.
I was watching this Interview of Honda by Renato Laranja and it looked like she was training at 10th Planet. http://youtu.be/lRhK9bM4XgU
I wonder if she’s still training there these days?
Tem Judô demais nessa farofa!
Kouchi gari was my favourite it was pure class
The Harai Goshi wins easily, especially the way she drops on Meisha at the last second!
El Tai Otoshi izquierdo estuvo de poca.