Holly Holm addressed recent comments made by Ronda Rousey about contemplating suicide after their UFC bout.
Ronda Rousey bared all on an appearance at the Ellen DeGeneres show, admitting that following her loss to Holly Holm, she ‘was literally thinking of killing myself’. The current champ has been asked about these statements, and Holm admits that she isn’t quite sure how she should respond.
“There’s a lot of things around that. When I heard that she said that, for me it’s one of those things it’s like, ‘How do I respond to that?'” Holm told Sherdog. “I don’t want to say I’m sorry because I think on a competitive level for me, if somebody was to say they’re sorry after [beating me], it’s like, ‘No, I’m a competitor.’ I’m not a charity case.”
“I feel like that’s something the best thing is for me not to say anything at all. I don’t want to say that I’m glad that she felt that way and I don’t want to say, ‘Oh I’m so sorry.’ It’s something I think that you have to dig through on your own. In the long run, she’ll be stronger mentally from it.”
Holm has experience with tough losses. Back in 2011 during her professional boxing days, Holly was knocked out by Anne Sophie Mathis to end a long winning streak. The decorated boxing champ recouped and won a rematch just 6 months later, and ended up winning her last three matches before leaving to focus on MMA full-time.
Holm said a good support system helped her overcome such a tough loss, and while she acknowledges that every situation is different, a part of Holm empathizes with Rousey.
“I hurt for her that she feels that way because that is a very low place. I did have a lot of help around me to where I did not feel that way,” Holm said. “People would say, ‘Oh it’s not the end of the world.’ I was like, ‘Well that’s exactly what it feels like, the end of the world.’”
“When you put your heart and soul into something and it gets shut down devastatingly, it’s terrible. It’s a horrible feeling.”