Holly Holm is competing for a lightweight world title in boxing on Saturday, but her name was mentioned a lot during the first MVP MMA card where Ronda Rousey submitted Gina Carano in the main event in just 17 seconds.<\/p>\n
The talk largely surrounded Holm potentially facing the winner before the fight happened because she signed with MVP as her boxing promoter, but it\u2019s impossible to forget her head kick heard round the world when she flatlined Rousey back in 2015. Holm\u2019s knockout remains one of the biggest upsets in MMA history but she never shied away from offering Rousey a rematch, although it never happened.<\/p>\n
Rousey, who retired off back-to-back knockout losses, returned from a 10-year hiatus and beat Carano before calling it a career again and she refused to even entertain taking another fight. That\u2019s why Holm appreciates that she was pitched as a potential opponent, but she doesn\u2019t expect Rousey to ever accept her invitation to run it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, a lot of talk with the Ronda fight,\u201d Holm told MMA Fighting. \u201cI highly doubt she\u2019ll ever want a rematch. I always have said since the minute the last fight was over, I\u2019ll always rematch her. That\u2019s always been available.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she wanted to come back and have this win and go back and enjoy and have a win like that. No hate from me. I hope she does well. I hope she does whatever she wants with her life. That\u2019s her life. I\u2019d always be open to fight her again.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as the fight goes, Holm wasn\u2019t shocked that Rousey won rather quickly after she scored a takedown and locked on her signature armbar submission to finish the fight in rapid-fire fashion.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, there were calls that the fight was somehow rigged but Holm scoffed at that suggestion, especially after watching Rousey do the same thing to high-level UFC fighters in the prime of her career.<\/p>\n
\u201c[She did that] a lot to women who were ranked at the top, Ronda was still doing that,\u201d Holm said. \u201cYou can\u2019t judge someone [who lost like that]. You know what? It takes a lot of courage to step back in when you haven\u2019t felt that in a long time and in that many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cRonda has been a lot more active. So she\u2019s been familiar with the grind and the physical strain on your body and things like that. Even just performing in front of people. You still get nerves. You still have things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Rousey had been out of action for a decade, Carano hadn\u2019t fought in 17 years and ever since her final appearance in Strikeforce, she\u2019s largely turned her attention to an acting career. That means Carano was rarely if ever training anything related to MMA yet she put herself through a rigorous training camp to get ready for Rousey.<\/p>\n
Holm says that level of commitment should be commended even if Carano ultimately lost the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to come back after time off, it\u2019s uncomfortable,\u201d Holm said. \u201cFights are uncomfortable. I don\u2019t like it. I hate fight week. I hate fight day. I always have. Every fight I\u2019m like this is my last one. Because that\u2019s how uncomfortable I am, and I know I\u2019m going to feel like that. But it is very uncomfortable and that\u2019s why a very small percentage of people can actually do this. It\u2019s not just the physical aspect you put your body through. It is more emotionally and mentally. There\u2019s just so much that goes into a fight. It\u2019s wild. You don\u2019t want to lose. You put so much into it and you just don\u2019t want to lose. It\u2019s the unknown. You don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen but you still face it anyways. You still walk in there with the unknown, feeling fully vulnerable for the whole world to see. Millions to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very uncomfortable thing and to get away from it and then walk back into it, that kind of uncomfortable emotion, physically, mentally, all of it. It\u2019s a big thing. For her to come back and face it, that takes a lot of courage, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as her feelings towards Rousey, Holm says she\u2019s never had anything but respect for her former opponent and that hasn\u2019t changed. Holm knows that knockout changed her career forever and that win doesn\u2019t have nearly the same magnitude attached to it without Rousey being the champion she was at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the respect to her,\u201d Holm said. \u201cThe whole reason why me beating her was such a big deal is because she was so dominant. You have to have a dominant champion in order to have a big upset. So I have all the respect for her and to her. I\u2019ll never say anything negative.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then there\u2019s like the fighter pride of things and a win is great but also to try to win that good or put that much of a stamp on something, anybody would be lying if they said they weren\u2019t proud of it. I\u2019m proud that I went in and did what I did. But I\u2019m a fighter. That\u2019s what we do. We go to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite all the talk about the Rousey fight, or maybe even clashing with Carano one day in the future, Holm is currently only focused on her boxing career and her upcoming rematch against Stephanie Han.<\/p>\n
The first fight ended due to a clash of heads and a cut that Han suffered before she won a technical decision on the scorecards. Holm immediately asked for a rematch and her wish was granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted the rematch real bad,\u201d Holm said. \u201cI think the way the fight [ended] warrants a rematch.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 44, Holm acknowledges that she only has so many fights left in her career and even though she\u2019s already an International Boxing Hall of Famer, adding another boxing title would mean a lot to her.<\/p>\n
Add to that, Holm is anxious to throw down with Han again after the unsatisfying ending to their first encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel like this is unfinished business,\u201d Holm said. \u201cIt\u2019s a goal I had. I fell short of it and I need to make it right. I need to do everything I can to make it right. That\u2019s what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m going to show up and I\u2019m going to fight for the belt and I\u2019m going to win it. It\u2019s a goal I have. A dream I have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still pushing and I still love this sport. I\u2019m not in it forever. I know it seems like it because I\u2019m still healthy and very capable and doing very well. I\u2019m not going to fight that much longer. But I do want to make sure that the last fights I have, I\u2019m going to put everything into it. I always do. I don\u2019t ever take any fight lightly but I put a lot into this fight and it\u2019s going to pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holly Holm is competing for a lightweight world title in boxing on Saturday, but her name was mentioned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,49,48,701,211425,248131,82],"class_list":["post-697579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-latest-news","tag-mvp-mma","tag-mvp-mma-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}