Last Updated : 11th November, 2015 By Alex M

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Ronda Rousey V Holly Holm Preview

On Saturday 14th November, the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia will host UFC 193 - headlined by Ronda Rousey's latest bantamweight title defence, this time against Holly Holm.

Ronda Rousey is a phenomenon in the world of mixed martial arts. The 28-year-old Rousey has appeared in the Fast and Furious franchise, starred as herself in the Entourage movie and featured in The Expendables 3. Her blossoming Hollywood career and appearances in mainstream media are no coincidence - she's a bona fide star.

Why, I hear you ask?

She is the UFC's highest paid fighter male or female, and therefore, their biggest draw. She won a bronze medal for America in judo at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing and has the desirable habit of finishing her opponents off in the first round. Rousey is the hottest fighting commodity since Mike Tyson and she is ranked 4th in the UFC's official pound-for-pound fighter ranks. That's across men and women, by the way.

Get odds of 5/6 with Paddy Power for Rousey to win via submission in the first round (£30 free bet)

Rousey The Record Breaker

The UFC are hoping to pack close to 100,000 people into the 70,000 seater Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, which would be a record attendance for the company. Rousey is the box-office superstar and what people will pay their hard earned money to see - Holly Holm is practically a well-paid attendee.

Rousey (12-0) has finished her last three fights in 16, 14 and 34 second respectively. She had three amateur fights, which all finished in under a minute via armbar in the first round. Professionally, she has only been taken beyond the first round once, and that was by long-time rival Meisha Tate who would eventually tap-out to the armbar in the third. In fact, 12 of Rousey's 15 fights overall have ended in submission via armbar, but three of the last four have come via KO or TKO.

The paying public wants to see Rousey hurt people, and she has a sensational track record of doing just that. But Holly Holm has some pedigree of her own and she is the latest women to try and tread all over the Rousey hysteria.

Get odds of 11/4 with Betvictor for Rousey to win via KO, TKO or DQ (£50 free bet)

Holm For Real?

Holm is a 15-time world champion in female professional boxing and is currently 9-0 in her MMA career. In trying to make a case for Holm, it's important to note that 32 of Holm's 38 boxing matches took place in her home town of Albuquerque, which indicates a local kind of talent field as opposed to the grand stage of the Olympics where Rousey successfully cut her teeth.

The 34-year-old Holm firmly believes she can win this fight, but were she to claim she couldn't she'd be the first to do so - so no grand revelation there. However, between her boxing career, 9 straight MMA wins to date and a 2-1 kickboxing dabble, she's amassed 44 wins from 50 bouts in her varied fighting career. It must be said, she know's how to win and indeed, become a champion.

Holm's hard-to-watch knock-out defeat to Sophie Mathis presents two lines of thinking. One, Holm really took a horrible beating there. If Holm think's that was a difficult nights work, Rousey can plausibly hit a lot harder and faster than that. I implore you to YouTube it - it's brutal.

Two, Holm would challenge Mathis to a rematch and win the bout with a tactical masterclass in boxing. That say's something about her character and heart for sure; it takes a special kind of competitor to come back from a humiliating loss like that and defy the odds.

Get odds of 12/1 with Betfair for the fight to go the distance (£30 free bet)

A Contrast In Styles

But, for what all of that may be worth, she is stepping into the octagon with Ronda Rousey. Holm has only had two fights in the UFC, both of which went the distance. Considering she comes from the world of boxing, she seems to lack the power to finish a bout. Holm hasn't been able to put anybody away in the big leagues and while she has a dangerous kick in her repertoire, she's more of a tactical puncher who uses her range to pick opponents off. She only won nine of her boxing matches via KO.

Will she be able to keep Rousey at bay for three rounds? Will her reach advantage tell?

Considering Holm is the decorated puncher of the two, in the UFC Holm has a 28% hit accuracy with her strikes while Rousey boasts a hit percentage of 63%. Rousey is traditionally a grappler by nature and Holm would be considered a striker; purely based on those traits you'd imagine the striker has a punchers chance at victory, but I don't believe that to be the case here.

Rousey is actually improving all the time and her skill-set seems to be expanding beyond the vicious armbar, even if it doesn't need to.

Get odds of 1/2 with Betway for Rousey to land the most significant strikes (£30 free bet)

Prediction

I'd like to make a case for Holm, but I just can't see it. If Rousey gets hold of her - it's over. If Rousey opens up with a flurry of punches like she did on Bethe Correia - it's over. Holm's only hope is to avoid and counter Rousey for the duration of the fight as she doesn't appear to possess the necessary power to put Rousey to bed sooner. I would say it's going to be a long evening for Holm, but I don't think it will be.

Rousey will win, and probably in the first round. The odds on both markets leave precious little to get excited about. Rousey to win inside 60 seconds is 2/1 with Betway, but I'd like to give Holm a little more credit than that. Rousey to win via armbar looks promising at 4/7 with Betway, or perhaps Rousey to win in the first round, which is 4/11 with Paddy Power.

Get odds of 4/7 with Betway for Rousey to win via armbar (£30 free bet)