Holly Holm has had a wild career across multiple combat sports. Not only did she win the UFC women’s bantamweight title, she won multiple boxing titles including the WBA and WBC welterweight belts before crossing over into MMA. Now she’s set to fight once more for the WBA belt against Stephanie Han on January 3rd — 19 years after she captured it for the first time!
Will that impressive feat be what she is remembered for? Nope, because nothing will ever be bigger than her headkick knockout of Ronda Rousey back in 2015 … unless it’s a rematch. Rousey is back in training and there’s a lot of chatter than “Rowdy” is preparing for a big money comeback. In a new interview with Ariel Helwani, Holm said she’d be down for a rematch, same as she was ten years ago.
“I would have definitely rematched her if I knew she was actually going to come back,” Holm said about the second fight that never came to be. “It was an open-ended kind of question: when is she coming back? How long am I gonna have to wait to fight? I did want to keep active. I’m a fighter. That’s what I do. And I’ve always been open to a rematch with her. I still am.”
Holm ended up fighting Miesha Tate six months after beating Ronda Rousey, and Tate would pull off a wild Hail Mary submission win in the 5th round to take the belt off Holm. She’d then drop the title to Amanda Nunes, and it was Nunes that Rousey would fight upon her return — and Nunes that would beat the brakes off “Rowdy” so badly that she left the sport.
Now we have reports that Ronda Rousey is looking to box Gina Carano sometime in 2026. Not that this leaves Holm without anything to do … a win over Stephanie Han could lead “The Preacher’s Daughter” to a big money showdown against Katie Taylor. But for the record: Holm would love some of that Rousey smoke.
“I’ve always been open to a rematch with Ronda, I just don’t know if she ever wanted to have one,” Holm said. “But I’ve always been open for a rematch with Ronda, and the offer still stands. I’m still here.”