Holly Holm talks about her fight with Rousey at UFC 193 and discusses whether she thinks the former champ will ever return.
While UFC president Dana White is doubtful he’ll ever see Ronda Rousey in the Octagon again after suffering her second consecutive knockout loss, former opponent Holly Holm isn’t so sure.
“Once a fighter, always a fighter” is Holm’s motto and ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ says that, despite losing in devastating fashion to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 — Rousey was finished via strikes just 48 seconds into the opening round — the former women’s bantamweight champion may get the itch to come back in a couple of year’s time.
“I’m one of those that, I’m a firm believer in the fact that once a fighter, always a fighter,” Holm said during a UFC 208 media call, per MMA Fighting’s Chuck Mindenhall. “She might not ever want to fight again. She might not fight for two years, and then she might say, ‘You know what? I’m really egging for it. I want to get back in there, I really want to fight. I’ve had enough of this regular life business.’ You know?”
Holm, who takes on Germaine de Randamie in a women’s featherweight championship bout at UFC 208, shattered Rousey’s aura of invincibility when she knocked her out at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium in 2015.
Rousey, who was once the centre of attention in the MMA media, retreated into privacy for almost a full year before making her return against Nunes in December. This led many to question ‘Rowdy’s’ state of mind, but Holm, a multiple-division boxing world champion, doesn’t think she ‘broke’ her spirit.
“I guess I don’t really feel like I broke her, but I do know that coming off of a knockout, when I knocked her out, yes — that helped the fight with Nunes [end] faster. I don’t mean that in any rude way,” Holm said.
Since losing to ‘The Lioness’, Rousey released a statement to ESPN saying that she needs to ‘take some time to reflect’ on her future in the sport.
Holm vs. Randamie will headline the UFC 208 pay-per-view on February 11 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.