UFC Singapore recap: Bethe Correia can’t answer Holly Holm’s question mark kick

UFC Singapore recap: Bethe Correia can’t answer Holly Holm’s question mark kick

UFC Singapore recap: Bethe Correia can’t answer Holly Holm’s question mark kick
UFC

UFC Singapore recap: Bethe Correia can’t answer Holly Holm’s question mark kick

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Holly Holm capped off UFC Singapore with a return to the win section. Now she’s back in the hunt.

Holly Holm finished Bethe Correia and nearly took her head off with a well-placed kick in the main event at UFC Singapore on Saturday.

Holm, who has in the past found success with kicks to the dome, executed a question mark kick that floored Correia, earning her first win since 2015.

This fight started out with both fighters waiting for their opponent to commit to something. The problem there was that no one was committing to much anything for a least a couple minutes. Apart from a few kicks from Holm and a horribly timed Superman punch from Correia, the opening round didn’t have much action and the Singapore crowd let the fighters know about it.

The dull tone continued into the second round of the fight. As the crowd booed, Holm and Correia stayed largely out of each other’s range and missed several strikes. The only moment where anything remotely happened was when Correia landed a spinning back fist.

By the third round, the crowd sounded like they just wanted their money back. Luckily for them, Holm made sure they got at least some of their money’s worth. After Correia taunted her opponent, Holm landed a beautiful question mark kick. The strike dropped Correia to the floor, and Holm rushed in for one more punch before the referee stopped the action at 1:09 of Round 3.

With the win, Holm picked up her first victory since knocking out Ronda Rousey in November 2015 to become the UFC women’s bantamweight champion.

What was the highlight of the fight?

With this fight having very little to get excited about, the finish is arguably the only highlight one can look back on to remember the bout even happening.

For whatever reason, Correia thought taunting Holm to engage was a good idea. Turns out it was a really, really, really bad idea. In the moments that followed, Holm measured her distance perfectly and caught her opponent square on the chin to lead to a knockout. It was this moment that the boos turned to cheers and the tone of the crowd did a 180-degree turn.

The finish was so nice that it prompted Twitter to describe the finish as “sweet shin music.”

Where do these two go from here?

Holm is finally back in the win column with her finish in the UFC Singapore main event. It’s wins like this that put her back in the conversation, especially when she’s finishing with question mark kicks that remind you what she’s capable of doing. Reasonably thinking, the win should start her climb back into title contention, but her agent, Lenny Fresquez, apparently thinks the fighter is ready for a shot now.

Oh, Bethe, what do we do with you? Your only win in the last two years has come against Jessica Eye, going 1-3-1 during that time. Maybe at this point she gets to call to test out upcoming fighters like Katlyn Chookagian or anyone outside of the top 15.

Watch now, later, or never?

The only time you should never watch a fight is when it’s an absolute snoozefest, and this one came dangerously close to being that. Luckily, Holm picked up the fancy finish so the bout warrants your attention when you get a chance to fire up Fight Pass a while later.