Top matches of 2015: 7) Holly Holm stuns Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm are set to fight again in July. Photo / Getty

In New Zealand, we all know about the Kick, the one which nailed Stephen Donald to the Wall of Honour in a tense 2011 Rugby World Cup final.

In the even more brutal world of UFC 193, it was a boot from Holly Holm which knocked the world of mixed martial arts off its axis and Ronda Rousey into in the care of surgeons.

It was an arcing left-foot strike which caught Rousey behind her right ear and sent the woman many felt invincible into a world of reflection about how she is going to cope with a rematch some time in the middle of next year.

Look up reviews of the fight and most are headlined, "Rousey stunned by Holm", or variations of that theme. This was UFC's version of Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson, or Cassius Clay, as he was then, stopping the enforcer Sonny Liston.

Rousey is the bronze medal-winning judoka from the 2008 Beijing Olympics who became a cocktail waitress with a taste for drink, smoking dope and living in her car before she took up serious training again.

She became such a phenomenon that UFC started a women's division where the 134 pound (61kg) bantamweight fighter and her armbar submissions took on a rollcall of their own.

She was unbeaten going into her Melbourne title defence in November against Holm, the daughter of a preacher who was a boxer and kickboxer also unbeaten but a UFC novice.

"I am here to shock the world, all respect for Rousey but I am a different fighter," said Holm.

"I just want to get in her face. All respect is fake and she's gonna get it on Sunday," returned a snarling Rousey. "My masterplan is to retire undefeated and walk away and not have anything to prove."

Instead, Rousey left the arena in major pain, heading for facial surgery and soul-searching about a rematch.