Valentina Shevchenko is not all that. It was Holly that made her look awesome.

[Tormund]

Outside of the ronda fight...
Holly has looked far from
stellar in the UFC. I still think
Rocky fought her to a draw

You don't know how to score then, clearly no 10-8 round and Holm clearly won 2/3 rounds. Close fight doesn't equate to a draw, it's like saying Nunes vs. Shev was a draw. One of the judges fucked up is all.

 

[Timetravel_0]

Like I said in another thread, I think Holly has a chance at beating Shevchenko. She lost because she was unable or unwilling to try to adapt to her opponent. I also blame the corner for this. She was obviously playing right into Shevchenko's hands. Shevchenko was comfortable and setting the pace and Holly continued to do the same exact thing that wasn't working. Holly or her corner should have changed something, anything. Go for a takedown, stop kicking and close the distance, anything to throw off her opponent

 

[Wheel]

Valentina made Holly look bad, IMO. She let HH be the aggressor, and just landed the better strikes through better speed and timing.

I was impressed. To be fair, HH did have a poor gameplan and look quite slow. The kicks she threw were ill-advised.

 

[j18lee]

Valentina is a straight up striker...and Holly just hopped around with a billion worthless feints atop of worthless spammy kicks...never wanting to engage...

Holly acted as if Valentina was a prime Mike Tyson or something...what was sad in light of how much BIGGER Holly is compared to Valentiny.

It's a bit of hindsight, but before Holm's Rousey fight, most fans, including myself, didn't give Holm a chance in hell of beating Rousey. That was partially because of how mediocre and tentative Holm had looked in her first two UFC fights. She barely beat Raquel Pennington in a split decision.

In hindsight, Rousey's ultra aggressive poor striking technique style is the perfect style for Holm's tentative counter punching. However, against anyone else with remotely decent standup, Holm is who she is in all of her fights, tentative, ultra cautious counter puncher. She fought Valentina just as I thought she would against anyone would half-decent striking technique.

 

[Sgt Smith]

Watch this & get back to me... Also go watch the Nunes fight & tell me she wouldn't have won if it were five rounds or had a full camp.

Hell, she could've possibly won it had she not been so tentative in the first couple of rounds. It's normal for her to start slow, but had she turned it up in either round she may have been able to swing a decision. She's currently the Frankie Edgar of WMMA. FLW would be hers for the taking.

 

[TheCryingElite]

Like I said in another thread, I think Holly has a chance at beating Shevchenko. She lost because she was unable or unwilling to try to adapt to her opponent. I also blame the corner for this. She was obviously playing right into Shevchenko's hands. Shevchenko was comfortable and setting the pace and Holly continued to do the same exact thing that wasn't working. Holly or her corner should have changed something, anything. Go for a takedown, stop kicking and close the distance, anything to throw off her opponent

She needs to change up her combo selection as well. As I said last night, she needs to take the leaping side kick and oblique kick out of her arsenal. They're effectively useless.

 

[86'd]

I agree that holly totally fought to Valentina's strengths. Getting into a game of tag in the center of the octagon while being the bigger and stronger athlete.

However Valentina's decorated resume does prove she is all that. Does she have holes in mma? sure, everyone does. But any chick that wants to exchange with her in open space is getting beat. Joanna included, holly, and to all you returning Ronda fanboys, Holly's sudden skid doesn't suddenly make Ronda's standup any better

 

[Diggem]

The growing hype surrounding Valentina is absurd. She is another one and done fighter. Her claim to fame will be her "win" over a lackluster performing Holm. She is lucky to have won that fight but She isn't going to be champ and if she does she will be done before it began.

 

[TheCryingElite]

The growing hype surrounding Valentina is absurd. She is another one and done fighter. Her claim to fame will be her "win" over a lackluster performing Holm. She is lucky to have won that fight but She isn't going to be champ and if she does she will be done before it began.

Too soon to tell.

 

[FeloniousMonk]

You don't know how to score then, clearly no 10-8 round and Holm clearly won 2/3 rounds. Close fight doesn't equate to a draw, it's like saying Nunes vs. Shev was a draw. One of the judges fucked up is all.

I give out 10/10s.
BUT "i don't know how to score"...

 

[Loiosh]

I will not own it sir.

Valentina is cute, charming, really good at striking, but...the UFC is more than stand up fighting, and for the weight class, she is diminutive.

Own it.

 

[Drake]

The growing hype surrounding Valentina is absurd. She is another one and done fighter. Her claim to fame will be her "win" over a lackluster performing Holm. She is lucky to have won that fight but She isn't going to be champ and if she does she will be done before it began.

Yeeah. Not like she ever did anything in Muay Thai or Kickboxing...

 

[leto1776]

I definitely have to see more. For example,nwhat does she do when an opponent isn't coming forward the whole fight, allowing her to counter. Also, can she do anything on the ground besides lay on top doing nothing?

I still think she beats Amanda "Queen of the First Round" Nunes in a rematch.

 

[Frank Kain]

People need to start getting used to the fact that Nunes and Shevchenko are the elite at 135. It was a battle of counterpunchers and Holm didn't adjust as well as she should have, at best.

 

[CPH]

I am also a big fan of Holly's but I have to admit: she lost to a better striker and I don't see a clear strategy for her to win a rematch.

Simply being more aggressive/increasing her output is not going to throw Valentina off. She is quicker than Holly and very accurate with her counters. Every time Holly stepped in to box, she was getting popped, basically short-circuiting any combo she had in mind.

Also, those low kicks were having an effect. The one advantage Holly has over Valentina is the quick feet but she wasn't checking any of them and surely enough, from the second round on, she was fighting on guts as her legs were beginning to tighten up from the repeated low kicks. She couldn't close as fast as she's like and her kicks were looking sluggish as well.

I think that this fight illustrates once again that a high level roundhouse completely owns those karate style straight and spinning kicks. MMA fighters need to work on the roundhouse first instead of focusing on 6 different rinky dinky karate, TKD kicks and becoming an unorthodox mediocrity.

 

[mmaElite53]

I'm not bashing, I'm just pointing out the obvious.

Holly GAVE Valentina that fight on a silver fucking platter.

Valentina is a straight up striker...and Holly just hopped around with a billion worthless feints atop of worthless spammy kicks...never wanting to engage...which made it EASY for Valentina to time everything.

Holly acted as if Valentina was a prime Mike Tyson or something...what was sad in light of how much BIGGER Holly is compared to Valentiny.

That said, I LIKE Valentina, but she is VERY limited in MMA...as opposed to strict stand-up fighting.

Also, it should be noted that I admire and respect Holly, (she is a TRUE warrior) but last night her game was totally OFF.

Did you miss the great takedowns Valentina scored on Holly? A woman who is notoriously hard to take down? Its like you didnt even watch the fight and are just making excuses for Holly. Lame that you say you like Valentina but hate on her in the same paragraph.

 

[The Big Bang]

I definitely have to see more. For example,nwhat does she do when an opponent isn't coming forward the whole fight, allowing her to counter. Also, can she do anything on the ground besides lay on top doing nothing?

I still think she beats Amanda "Queen of the First Round" Nunes in a rematch.

I'd put money on Val in a rematch, but she would have to force the action more.

 

[deviake]

I thought Holly fought the same fight she always does. She didn't look any different than usual to me. Shevchenko is highly skilled and looked well prepared to deal with Holly's attack.

 

[86'd]

The growing hype surrounding Valentina is absurd. She is another one and done fighter. Her claim to fame will be her "win" over a lackluster performing Holm. She is lucky to have won that fight but She isn't going to be champ and if she does she will be done before it began.

Or her claim to fame could be a decorated Muay Thai career with wins over current UFC champ Joanna.

 

[Peteyandjia]

"Holly made it easy"...

Some people have no idea what they are looking at.