UFC 208 was capped off by a fight between two women’s bantamweight contenders for the inaugural women’s featherweight championship — Holly Holm vs. Germaine de Randamie — and it was de Randamie who had a belt wrapped around her waist at the end of the night.
UFC 208 took place live from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Saturday, Feb. 11.
The Dutch fighter had a fantastic start and clearly outpointed the former 135-pound champion in the first 10 minutes of the five-round affair, but Holm came on somewhat strong in the last couple rounds, making for a tough fight to score. Ultimately, this fight came down to de Randamie’s aggression, power and precision — she out struck the former boxing world titleholder with those three things.
For much of the fight, De Randamie walked forward while Holm walked backward. Holm wansn’t just aggressive enough, nor did she land more than de Randamie. De Randamie rocked her a few times, and Holm wobbled her opponent, as well, but just not as frequently.
Holm continuously clinched with de Randamie, but was unsuccessful 100 percent of the time with securing actual takedowns. It was a striking battle for almost the entirety of the bout, and de Randamie outclassed Holm in that department.
What was the highlight of the fight?
Of course there was some controversy involved. What would a UFC event — or fight — be without a little controversy? At the end of the second round, de Randamie rocked “The Preacher’s Daughter” very badly after the bell had sounded. Though de Randamie was partly at fault, so was the referee for not successfully intervening at the bell.
This caused quite a bit of outrage from viewers, but more was soon to come. At the end of round three, de Randamie, yet again, landed a punch after the bell — this time, two punches. And again, no penalty, except for a warning, from the rather inexperienced referee. Twitter went nuts. A point absolutely should have been taken, and we could have been talking about a draw, or even a Holm win for that matter (two points taken away wouldn’t have been crazy).
All in all, that was the highlight of de Randamie vs. Holm.
Where do these two go from here?
De Randamie is now at the top of a division that has three fighters part of it, so there aren’t too many options available. She announced after the bout that she will need to undergo hand surgery in the near future, so time will tell how long the new UFC titleholder will be sidelined. Cris Cyborg, widely considered the best featherweight on the planet, is currently dealing with a USADA fiasco but reportedly may be cleared to fight sooner rather than later. It really all depends on what happens with de Randamie’s hand and Cyborg’s USADA situation. If both things get out of the picture quickly, they’ll fight. Guaranteed. If not, the UFC might have to bring in interim Invicta FC featherweight champ Megan Anderson to fight, or maybe Holm can fight for the interim title — because interim titles seem to be the UFC’s thing nowadays. Or if Cyborg is suspended for two years, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the division fold and de Randamie fight 135-pound champ Amanda Nunes.
It’s tough to see where Holm goes from here, as she’s lost three in a row since her massive win over Ronda Rousey at the end of 2015. She had a rough 2016 and her start to 2017 isn’t any better. Perhaps she’ll go back to 135 pounds and try and work her way back to the title, or maybe she’ll stay at 145 pounds and hope she can fight for an interim belt as I previously mentioned. It’s really, really difficult to say.
Watch now, later, or never?
All around, this was a decent fight. Not amazing, but not horrible. Give it a watch, but there’s no immediate rush.