Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm is trying to work her way back to a 135-pound title shot against reigning division titleholder Amanda Nunes, but it seems as though none of the top-ranked contenders are willing to serve as as a stepping stone for “The Preacher’s Daughter.”
That includes former opponents Germaine de Randamie and Miesha Tate.
“Honestly, nobody wants to fight Holly,” coach Mike Winkeljohn told Submission Radio. “We have to go up to 145 for this fight with (Norma) Dumont because nobody wants to fight Holly. I can go through the list. De Randamie’s ranked number one, she said absolutely, no way, I’m not gonna fight Holly Holm. So, she said no. We’ve already beat Raquel a bunch of times. We beat up Aldana. Aldana just beat up Yana. So, none of those are gonna make sense. Miesha Tate said nope, not right now. So, everybody talks the talk, but honestly, behind the scenes, nobody wants to fight Holly.”
After getting stopped by Nunes at UFC 239 back in summer 2019, Holm (14-5) racked up back-to-back wins over Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana. Perhaps the skills on display against both of those contenders is what has the rest of the division shook.
“Holly just wants the title shot,” Winkeljohn continued. “That’s all she wants. She’s never turned down a fight before in her life, and she wants a title fight. I thought Holly looked so impressive when she fought Irene Aldana, that people gotta know where she’s at. And that’s the problem, people are like, uh oh, she can now wrestle people now? As well as striking? It’s getting scary, and I think people see that.”
Holm, 39, returns to featherweight against Norma Dumont on Oct. 16 in Las Vegas.