Pressure can crush you, or it can make diamonds. The MMA world found out what kind of carbon object Holly Holm was Saturday night at UFC on Fox 20.
I’m sorry for the sports cliche, but it’s a perfect fit for the situation. Plus, it’s getting toward the end of the month, and I have a quota to meet. Either way, on a bombed-out and depleted card in Chicago, Holm was the only light of any substantial wattage.
In the evening’s main event, Holm—who, as you may recall, shocked Ronda Rousey last November to win the UFC women’s bantamweight title, only to lose it to Miesha Tate in her next fight—faces Russian-Ukrainian Valentina Shevchenko. Unless you follow the international muay thai scene, Shevchenko is a total unknown.
So it’s a big step down in competition for Holm. Still, it’s probably a must-win situation. If she wins, she’s back on track and could be the next challenger to new champ Amanda Nunes. If she loses, she’s relegated, for at least a time, to the one-hit-wonder bin, right alongside Soft Cell and Chumbawamba.
That’s what a person might call pressure, and it’s a pressure Holm acknowledged in the run-up to the fight. Add in the fact she was the only star on this Chicago slate, and that pressure reaches tectonic proportions.
Despite its scant implications for the wider UFC landscape, this card still contained 11 fights. Streaking and dangerous lightweight Edson Barboza took on grizzled but still-capable veteran Gilbert Melendez in the co-main event. As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC on Fox 20.
Full card results appear on the final slide.