{"id":701318,"date":"2026-05-29T10:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701318\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:15:12","slug":"holly-holm-discusses-potential-ronda-rousey-rematch-doubts-rouseys-return-to-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/701318\/","title":{"rendered":"Holly Holm Discusses Potential Ronda Rousey Rematch, Doubts Rousey’s Return to MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of her boxing rematch against Stephanie Han<\/a> for Jake Paul’s<\/a> MVPW, former UFC <\/a>champion Holly Holm is on a press run to talk about her upcoming fight, as well as her reaction to Ronda Rousey\u2019s recent comeback<\/a> to MMA<\/a>. Holm, who dispatched of Rousey with relative ease during their championship fight back in 2015, has spoken to the media expressing her willingness to rematch Rousey, but she is also realistic in her expectations and believes that Rousey will stay retired for good.<\/p>\n

In an interview with MMA Fighting<\/a>, Holm spoke of Ronda, saying, \u201cShe wanted to come back and have this win and go back and enjoy and have a win like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Sarah Stier&sol;Getty Images<\/p>\n

Holm referenced Rousey\u2019s incredibly quick finish of Gina Carano. \u201cNo hate from me. I hope she does well. I hope she does whatever she wants with her life. That\u2019s her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousey returned to fighting after a decade, while Carano had been 17 years removed from competition. Despite the clear skill gap, Holm had nothing but positive things to say about her former opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor [Ronda] to come back and face it, that takes a lot of courage, too,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n

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The Rematch that Never Happened<\/p>\n

She also revealed on The Ariel Helwani Show that she was actually anticipating a rematch with Rousey, but was met with silence from Rousey and her camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after the fight, it was, \u2018Hey, do you want to wait for the fight with Ronda?\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, sure. How long are we going to wait?\u2019 and there was no answer, because we had no answer from her,\u201d she claims.<\/p>\n

Despite handily dominating Rousey in the span of two rounds during their first fight, Holm was gracious enough to grant Ronda a chance to redeem herself.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve always said I would rematch her, and I still would to this day,\u201d Holm remarked, leaving the door open to another possible retirement comeback.<\/p>\n

\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,\u201d she told MMA Fighting.<\/p>\n

Rousey, however, has been adamant that she will not return to competing in MMA, saying after her fight that she wants to \u201chave some more babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI believe her when she says she\u2019s done,\u201d Holm told Helwani.<\/p>\n

Holm also believes Ronda Rousey was not gracious in her defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think she held herself real well after her losses, but it\u2019s hard to tell people how you\u2019re supposed to feel. Those are raw emotions. I\u2019ve never been one to talk sh\u2014 on her, gloat; nothing like that,\u201d she continued, referencing Rousey\u2019s two losses to Holm and Amanda Nunes:<\/p>\n

Holm Has Immense Respect for Rousey<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, Holm is happy for Rousey and has nothing but respect for her:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe whole reason why me beating her was such a big deal is because she was so dominant,\u201d she told MMA Fighting. \u201cYou have to have a dominant champion in order to have a big upset. So I have all the respect for her. I\u2019ll never say anything negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then there\u2019s like the fighter pride of things,\u201d she admitted. \u201cAnybody 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

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the MMA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of her boxing rematch against Stephanie Han for Jake Paul’s MVPW, former UFC champion Holly Holm is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,32287,638,73910,1867,82],"class_list":["post-701318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-holly-holm","tag-mma","tag-mma-fighting","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701318","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=701318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}