“I always want to do something that hasn’t been done.”
Saturday night was historic for the sport of boxing on many levels. Lightweight fighters Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano duked it out for ten rounds, but it was the Irish boxer who emerged victorious via split decision to keep her undefeated record, along with the WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF, and Ring Magazine titles.
Watching the action unfold along with the rest of the combat sports world was former UFC champion, Holly Holm. And after what she’d seen from both women – Taylor in particular – Holm says she is getting an itch to get back into the squared ring and compete.
“We had talked, Taylor and myself before I wound up going to MMA. We had talked about a possible fight there,” Holm said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour. “I always want to do something that hasn’t been done. I always get super intrigued by things, and I fought at three weight divisions, ‘40, ‘47, and ‘54, and I never got to fight at ‘35.
“But I’ve done most of my MMA career at ‘35, and that’s what their fight was at. So it makes me like, ‘I want to go back in and show what I can do at a whole different weight class.’
“I never even fought at that weight class when I was in boxing and I think I’m bigger and stronger than a lot of the 135ers, and I still have conditioning and I still have a lot of that ring experience behind me.”
The 40-year-old Holm was a multiple-time world boxing champion with a total of 16 title defenses under her belt. She was also named Ring Magazine’s Female Fighter of the Year in 2005 and 2006 and was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017. Holm is also set to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this June.
Given her accolades, “The Preacher’s Daughter” is determined to make history by being able to successfully jump back and forth between boxing and MMA.
“It does intrigue me. A lot. To the point where, before, I was like, ‘I’ll never box again,’ and I’m not saying that,” she said. “There’s been a lot of people that have been able to transition back and forth, but nobody’s really been able to do it successfully, and that drives me.
“I want to show people I was able to come to MMA from boxing but I can also go back. It does get me excited.”
For now, Holm’s UFC contract will always take priority and she will have to deal with her current assignment for May 21st, when she takes on Ketlen Vieira.