UFC President Dana White stated Thursday that scheduling the high-profile rematch between new women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm and former champ Ronda Rousey is clearly a top priority.
Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com passed along comments White made during an appearance on the network. The 46-year-old understands the importance of getting something set up after Holm’s shocking victory in November.
“If we didn’t make the Holm/Rousey rematch, me and [UFC chairman] Lorenzo [Fertitta] would have to lose our promoter’s license,” White said. “That’s next.”
Holm stunned Rousey, and most of the viewing public, with a perfectly placed kick to the head during the championship bout in Australia. She capitalized by delivering some final punches to earn the second-round knockout, handing one of the sport’s biggest draws her first loss.
Obviously, the rematch is going to generate a significant amount of hype. The question will be whether Holm caught Rousey on a bad day or whether she’s truly the new top dog in the division.
It’s unclear when the rematch will take place, though.
Mike Bohn of Rolling Stone noted prior to the first meeting that Rousey said she was planning to take some time away from the octagon: “But after this fight, I’m definitely going to let some people miss me, for sure. Believe me, there’s nothing I would like to do more than disappear for a while. I would like to wait until UFC 200 to fight again. I’m going to be filming [movies] in the meantime, so I’m still going to be keeping busy.”
Her packed to-do list outside of the world of MMA is likely going to make the scheduling of a rematch more difficult. That said, getting a date out there as quickly as possible while the upset is still fresh in everybody’s mind is an important factor.
That said, White clearly believes it’s going to happen eventually. When it does, Rousey and Holm will both have a lot to prove.
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