“She’s exactly the opposite of what Ronda Rousey did after Holly knocked her out.”
UFC president Dana White suggested that Holly Holm should retire following her knockout loss to Amanda Nunes this past Saturday at UFC 239, but longtime coach Mike Winkeljohn, who trains Holm out of Albuquerque’s JacksonWink MMA, believes ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ will bounce back stronger than ever.
Nunes’ head kick KO at UFC 239 was reminiscent of Holm’s very own knockout victory over Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, where the JacksonWink standout became the first woman to dethrone ‘Rowdy’ of the bantamweight title.
Rousey took the loss badly, shutting out the media for an entire until her comeback fight against Nunes, which she lost via first-round KO.
Rousey subsequently retired from MMA and made a transition to the world of professional wrestling, but for Holm, the 37-year-old is determined to keep ‘pushing forward’ and return to MMA a new and improved fighter.
“Holly’s going to be back. She’s definitely one of the fighters in the gym,” Winkeljohn said in a recent interview with MMAFighting. “She works harder than anybody else. She has the desire and the passion, which is higher than anybody in the gym,” Winkeljohn said.
“She’s exactly the opposite of what Ronda Rousey did after Holly knocked her out. Ronda, her whole world was over and all these bad things, which is not what young ladies or anybody needs to hear in this world. S—t happens. When bad things happen, what makes you great is your ability to deal with it and go forward. That’s what Holly has decided to do. That’s what she’s done her whole life and she will go forward.”
Despite White’s calls for retirement and the fact that Holm is 2-5 in her last seven bouts, the JacksonWink product is still ranked in the UFC’s official top-three women’s bantamweight rankings.