“Grading the card’’ is an article written by Mike James after every major UFC and Bellator event. Every main card fight and the fight card itself is briefly discussed and given a letter grade. This article covers UFC 193, which took place Saturday night from the Eithad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm This was more of a masterful performance than great fight. Holm had her way with Rousey from the opening bell, which was very surprising. Holm kept Ronda at bay with her kicks and straight punches and was able to break away when she found herself in the clinch. It was perhaps the biggest upset of all time due to shock value, even if it wasn’t the biggest in regards to the actual betting odds. Fight Grade: B Holly Holm Grade (A+) Joanna vs Jędrzejczyk vs Valerie Letourneau Jędrzejczyk clearly was the better fighter, as she battered the Canadian for five full rounds. However, Letourneau never quit and she kept coming even though she could hardly walk. It was not the most exciting fight in the world, but it was a good enough performance for Jędrzejczyk to retain her belt. Fight Grade: C+ Mark Hunt vs Antonio Silva There is not much to say about this one. Both fighters were very cautious for the first few minutes until Hunt opened up with a combination and grazing straight right that caught Bigfoot Silva in the top of the head and he knocked him out cold with a couple follow-up shots on the ground. Fight Grade D (Due to low activity) Mark Hunt Grade: A+ (He waited on the perfect opportunity and capitalized on it). Uriah Hall vs Robert Whittaker This was a fun matchup featuring two high-level strikers. Whittaker was by far the more active striker and landed the harder shots. Hall became kind of tentative when he got hit a few times and he was never really able to get anything going. The Australian also scored a few takedowns to keep Hall guessing. Fight Grade: B- Stefan Struve vs Jared Rosholt Kicking off UFC 193’s main card was a heavyweight contest between Dutch kickboxer Stefan Struve and former three-time All-American wrestler Jared Rosholt. The UFC may have not exactly made the right call in choosing this fight to open the main card. Rosholt would take Struve down over and over but did absolutely nothing from top position. It was a very boring fight, complete with Rosholt getting warned for inactivity. Struve did a little better in the third round, but he was far too tentative on the feet, likely due to fear of being taken down again, Fight Grade: D- Thoughts: This night will likely be remembered for someone finally dethroning Ronda Rousey, but it was only a decent card overall. We saw a great performance from Holly Holm plus the undercard had top notch showings from Ben Nguyen, Jamess Moontasri, Gian Villante, and Kyle Noke. It was an average card, especially for an event taking place in a 70,000 seat stadium setting the all-time UFC attendance record. Final UFC 193 main card grade: C
