Holly Holm was known primarily as one of the best boxers on the planet before establishing herself as a star in mixed martial arts (MMA). If we’ve learned anything from our time over the years watching combat sports, it’s that you can never say never.
This past weekend, fans were treated to one of the biggest fights in women’s boxing history as Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano went to war. A hard and closely contested bout resulted in Ireland’s Taylor getting her hand raised (watch highlights). Enjoying the action herself, Holm now finds the prospect of returning to her prior combat sport rather interesting.
“It does intrigue me. A lot,” Holm told MMA Fighting’s The MMA Hour. “To the point where, before, I was like, ‘I’ll never box again,’ and I’m not saying that. 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.
“What gets me excited is if I had one [belt] on each shoulder,” Holm concluded. “Do it all.”
Holm’s professional boxing career spanned from 2002 to 2013 and saw her accumulate an impressive 33-2-3 record before transitioning to MMA. Once Holm captured Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) gold in Nov. 2015, the debate began on whether or not she had become the greatest female combat sports athlete of all time.
As fascinating as a Holm vs. Taylor matchup could be in the present day, “The Preacher’s Daughter” also revealed that the two have been in talks to square off in the past.
“We had talked, Taylor and myself, before I wound up going to MMA. We had talked about a possible fight there,” Holm said. “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.”
Holm returns to action against Ketlen Vieira as the main event of UFC Vegas 55 on May 21.