Would Standing Eight Count Have Avoided Herb Dean Blunder At Rousey vs. McMann?

Thanks to a well placed knee strike by Ronda Rousey along with a premature stoppage by referee Herb Dean, Sara McMann’s dream of becoming UFC Womens Bantamweight Champion was over in 66 seconds.

McMann was actually winning the striking battle with more significant punches and elbows before Rousey pushed her against the cage.

That is where Sara made a huge mistake. If she didn’t want to attempt a takedown, she should have continued her excellent movement by immediately circling off the cage away from Ronda (see How To Beat Ronda Rousey).

To her credit, Ronda (who had been getting pounded by Sara until then), capitalized on Sara’s lack of movement with excellent knee strikes. One of the knees hit Sara’s liver and dropped her to all fours. Herb Dean immediately stopped the fight.

It was a terrible stoppage, another blunder by Herb Dean but that’s not Ronda Rousey’s fault. She delivered the accurate knee strike.

A possible solution would have been a standing eight count. Such a rule would not have to used every time a fighter was hurt or knocked down. It would be at the discretion of the referee.

The standing eight count is a boxing term. Perhaps it’s a misnomer to use that expression in MMA because it could be used effectively while a fighter is actually down, as was the case with Sara McMann. For MMA a better term might be stop action count.

Had a standing eight count or stop action count rule been in place for UFC 170 Rousey vs. McMann, there is no doubt Herb Dean would have seen Sara McMann could continue fighting with no problem. It would have given Herb Dean more time to make an accurate, correct call. Instead, UFC fans were robbed of watching a potentially great championship fight.

Ronda Rousey put on another strong performance but after the fight she was again loudly booed by the audience. Of course many fans were outraged by Herb Dean’s early stoppage but many more fans simply dislike Rousey.

Later, during a post fight interview, Ronda lamented about how she still will be criticized after her winning defense of the title. She wondered what kind of remarks some would say even though she fought well.

The problem with that is MMA fans do not loudly boo or hold Rousey in contempt because of her skills in the cage. They dislike her because of the way she acts as a human being.

True fans know Rousey was dishonest when claiming to have only trashed talked Miesha Tate. Fans saw Rousey’s true personality as she lied, cried, flipped off and made false charges of “Armenian racism” while acting like a contemptibly obnoxious person on the TUF 18 TV series.

UFC fans dislike her because they have discovered Ronda Rousey will spit in your beer when you’re not looking.