It’s hard to believe that in the women’s bantamweight division, former champion Holly Holm is the odd woman out.
That’s certainly the case at the moment, as “The Preacher’s Daughter” can’t seem to get a fight after coughing up her title to Miesha Tate at UFC 196 just a few weeks back (see it).
Meanwhile, Tate already has her first title defense lined up against Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 on July 9, 2016, the same night two other contenders, Cat Zingano and Julianna Pena, are set to scrap. And though Holly desperately wanted a rematch against “Cupcake,” she would’ve taken a bout against either “Alpha” or the “Venezuelan Vixen,” too.
Still, Holly says she’s baffled that her wishes for a rematch went unheard over at the ZUFFA offices, while the less competitive fight between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz — which spearheaded UFC 196 — got in the instant green light for a do-over.
She broke down her frustrations on a recent edition of The MMA Hour:
“I definitely feel like our fight had more competitiveness. I feel like our fight was more competitive than the main event that night as far as… yes I lost my belt, but I was winning the fight and it kind of creates this curiosity of what would happen in a rematch. I don’t know. Hopefully they will put something together. But obviously it’s going to be a while. After UFC 200, if she still has the belt, who knows how much time she is going to want to take off. That’s what’s frustrating is that, man, I want to fight for that rematch, but it might be a while so I have to see if they want to give me a different fight. Maybe Zingano or Pena, but they put them together. Right now it just seems like I’ll be hanging out for awhile, and it’s frustrating.”
T.J. Dillashaw feels your pain, Holly.
Still, Holm isn’t totally ignoring the fact that Conor sells tons of tickets for the promotion, so she understands why he earned a spot at UFC 200 opposite Nate as a business move.
On the flip side, she feels her fight against Miesha did help the UFC 196 numbers go up a bit, and a rematch at UFC 200 would’ve done well, too. That said, Holm can’t help but to be a bit disappointed that Tate didn’t return the favor and give her a fight when she did just that at UFC 196.
“I would hope she would want to give me the chance like I gave her the chance. But I also feel like I take responsibilities for what I do and I am the one that lost the belt, so I lost a lot of my pull of what I can wish and hope for and push for. Yeah, I was hoping she would give me that chance, but she also has her own career to focus on and what she aspires to do, so I can’t judge her for that, either. I was hoping she would, but I’m not mad at her or anything like that.”
Tate is adamant UFC officials didn’t offer up Holm as an option for her first title defense, hence the different direction. That said, one would think if “Cupcake” really wanted it, she would’ve somehow persuaded matchmakers to run it back again.
As far as turning down a fight against Cris Cyborg, Holly says she isn’t opposed to fighting her, but her heart is completely set on fighting for the title. And had she known 100-percent that it would be a no-go against Tate, she would’ve thought twice about declining the Cyborg bout.