Germaine de Randamie (7-3) defeated Holly Holm (10-3) to become the first women’s featherweight champion at UFC 208. The event took place Saturday night at the Barclays center in Brooklyn, New York. Holly Holm went up against the Muay Thai stylist Germaine de Randamie for the inaugural women’s featherweight title in the night’s main event.

Germaine won by unanimous decision on all three cards as the judges scored the bout 48-47 in de Randamie’s favor. But the decision was not free of controversy. Germaine was caught landing blows on Holm late after the bell in not one, but two rounds. Referee Todd Anderson’s inexperience showed as he got in late to stop the action, and failed to deduct Germaine’s points. Germaine outrageously attempted to land punches after the bell rung and succeeded.

The Fight: Breakdown

The fight had an orthodox start. Both the fighters sized up each other looking for weaknesses. Germaine did a nice job staying out of range, moving in and out. Holm showed aggressiveness but de Randamie remained elusive. The latter was able to counter attack by landing good clean punches on the chin. However, the best and the hardest punch that came in the fight at the hands of Germaine was after the bell at the end of round 2. The two-punch combo clearly rocked Holm, and if it wasn’t for the bell, de Randamie could have capitalized on the opportunity. The referee didn’t penalize her for the doing.

Again in round 3, Germaine landed a right hand on Holm after the bell, but the referee let her off with a warning. Holm came up strong later in the fight. She held de Randamie against the cage for most of the 4^th and 5^th rounds. Holm landed punches of her own, knocking de Randamie off her feet. She landed one punch on Germaine’s chin, which discombobulated her. Since Holm was in the clinch most of the time, she couldn’t overpower Germaine. In the end, Germaine de Randamie defeated Holly Holm via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47).

Germaine: It was in the heat of the moment

After the bout, Germaine de Randamie clarified that she did not hit Holly Holm after the bell on purpose. She said, “I apologize and I didn’t mean to hit her after the bell. It was in the heat of the moment. I am not that kind of a fighter.” It would have been interesting to see if the points deducted for the late punches came into play as the judges had the fighters only a point apart. The late hard punches might have affected Holly Holm during the whole fight. The crowd wasn’t happy at all as they booed during the bout. Poor officiating made de Randamie’s win bitter for the fans.

Holm showed that she had the magnitude of punches and de Randamie had her hard blows. Germaine made her intentions clear of knocking out Holm. She looked like a brawler in the octagon and applied everything that was in her arsenal. Holly Holm, the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion has now lost her third consecutive fight since her win over Ronda Rousey in November 2015.

Germaine de Randamie has won five of her past six fights and is expected to face Cris “Cyborg” Justino next. This can, however, take time as de Randamie suggested that she might take some time off to get her damaged thumb ligament repaired. This means her next fight won’t happen quickly. Also, the fans are sure to scream for another Holm vs de Randamie due to the poor refereeing on Saturday night. Although Germaine has the belt, it hasn’t left everyone satisfied.

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