Countdown to UFC 184

This is apparently a fantastic show, so since it's on FS1 tonight, let's cover it! The show starts off with a rundown of the Cat-Rousey TUF season we were going to have. They show her recovering from surgery with her then-husband shooting the video and then a little hint of what happened to him and showing her with her son. Holm is shown with clips to hype up the Pennington fight. They show Ronda training in her hotel over July 4th weekend. They weigh-in and Ronda says she'll retire undefeated. We get THE FACE and they cut from the fight to show a gym.

They say every champion has a night where they seem human and show GSP and Anderson Silva losing, but that hasn't happened to Ronda. We get the whole Davis fight complete with Phantom cam shots of the punches from the side mount. We go to Denver with Cat and her son in the car. She says when she met her husband, he said she'd be world champ. She planned to be a sign language interpeter and this was just her outlet. They show Strikeforce stuff and thank God, don't just blur half the sponsors. They're far worse than even WWE was with that. She's shown walking to the Octagon against Tate with highlights making her look fantastic. She gets the title shot and a TUF coaching role, but then things go awry.

 

She blew her knee out and we get footage of her in the hospital on the motion machine including a shot of her knee opened up. She was preparing to return in 2014, but her husband, her inspiration, killed himself. It's still a fresh wound for her and she says it's day to day, and grieving always is. "The forward motion will take me somewhere I'm not stuck." Simple, but true. She said she and her husband did it for fun, they had two gyms, a bond, and now it's all gone. She has to re-learn things and work hard to provide for her and her son. She and her son goof around before she fights Nunes and busts her up before becoming elated with the win.

Cat meets with a physical therapist about feeling 100%. She works with her strength and conditioning coach, who she credits with allowing her to peak properly. They rundown The Time is Now presser and how Cat saw Ronda up close for the first time. We go to CA with Ronda swimming - it's her only conditioning training. She talks about having surgery in July to clean her knee up. Edmond has her to shadow boxing on a crash pad to strengthen the legs up. She says now she can use her legs more than ever because she was basically fighting on one. She's preparing to fight the best version of Cat.

Ronda says that her gym is her constant and we get a shot of a "success is the best revenge" sign, which is quite true. Another saying is something she added - if it works, it's right. Her mother wrote the success one. Ronda says Cat's amazing and that makes her better. Edmond says that Ronda's better now than she's ever been and it takes 10 pro fights to really learn the environment. Cat's coach chimes in for a second and says it'll be exciting. We get another great Ronda face here.

We go to New Mexico with Holly Holm. Winkeljohn's been her trainer for 17 years. We see some boxing footage and she's hyped up as an 18-time champion. She left boxing in 2013 to be the best in MMA too. Some MMA clips are shown and she's hyped up as going 7-0 into the octagon. She's hyped as the best boxer, but she KOs with her feet and we get some Cro Cop-level high kick knockouts. Pennington clips from TUF are shown. Racuel's training is shown. The nasty bulldog choke finish from 181 is shown and Fiore says they're going to be the spoiler on Saturday.

Back in New Mexico, Holly does high kicks. She does some sprawling and says he's not here to just box - if she just wanted to do that, she'd have stayed in boxing. She wants to make everything think of her as a well-rounded fighter where they fear her clinch and wrestling game. Pennington says she won't be a Christmas tree that Holly can just light up! Great line there! Her coach says Holly will be just another patient who gets the same treatment. Raquel gets a kick-ass montage set to rock music while Ronda gets a bit of it and she'll fight in front of her hometown for the first time in the UFC. She isn't going to be just the best in the world, she'll be the best in any location. Cat says that Ronda should be credited for giving female fighters a path to follow...well, that's true, but it sure does short change what Gina did.