Holly Holm has confronted practically each distinguished title in her weight class and there’s one legend she’d be open to preventing once more.
Former two-division UFC champion Amanda Nunes was not too long ago in attendance at UFC 297 in Toronto and although “The Lioness” has given no indication that she plans to return out of retirement, seeing her that near the octagon once more sparked just a few conversations about whether or not she may need one other struggle or two in her.
On The MMA Hour, Holm was requested for her ideas on a potential Nunes comeback and whether or not she’d like a rematch of their UFC 239 bantamweight title struggle.
“[Nunes] would possibly [come back],” Holm mentioned. “That was even one of many issues I believed after they had been like, ‘We’ve received a struggle for you, belief me, we’ve simply received to see.’ I ponder if it will be like she’d should no less than have one struggle earlier than [a title shot] if she got here again and at one level my coach and I had been like, ‘No, most likely not.’
“I didn’t assume something after which it was like, ‘Did you see one thing about Nunes perhaps coming again?’ I thought of it too, however I don’t know. I do assume that she’s having fun with break day. She was fairly lively in being a double champion and all that. I’ve all of the respect for her on this sport. One other fighter that’s fought the highest women. You actually can’t take something away from Amanda.”
Nunes efficiently defended her title towards Holm by way of first-round TKO of their July 2019 assembly, the final time that Holm challenged for a UFC belt. The previous champion has stayed busy since, profitable three of her previous 5 fights with the one blemishes being a cut up choice loss to Ketlen Vieira and a submission loss to Mayra Bueno Silva that was later overturned to a no-contest when Silva examined optimistic for a banned substance she takes to deal with her ADHD.
Win or lose, Holm has seemingly at all times discovered herself standing throughout a embellished opponent, whether or not it’s Nunes, Cris Cyborg, Ronda Rousey, Valentina Shevchenko, Miesha Tate, Germaine de Randamie, and even Raquel Pennington, the not too long ago topped bantamweight champion that Holm holds two wins over.
Holm attributes her willingness to face the hardest competitors to the experiences she had as a world champion boxer.
“After I first began preventing, as I used to be moving into a few of my first title fights, I might see a few of these women, I might see this large report and be actually nervous after which I might begin to take a look at who they fought,” Holm mentioned. “They’d be like, 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, 1-0, for 12 fights straight, 20 fights straight. Then I used to be like, I don’t wish to be like that. These sorts of victories can’t even really feel that good and I at all times wished to guarantee that I fought the very best and I didn’t wish to be a ‘paper champion,’ I didn’t wish to be like that.
“Sure, there’s extra danger with it once you’re preventing the very best, and I do take delight in the truth that I’ve fought the very best whereas they had been at the moment the very best. Not after the actual fact, I wish to struggle the very best after they’re the very best as a result of these are the fights to take. These are probably the most nerve-wracking fights, these are probably the most intense, you will have a lot to lose. So much comes with that, however on the finish of the day I look again even at my boxing profession and I do know that I fought all the highest women after they had been at the moment of their prime and I’m very completely happy about that in that profession, so why would I wish to do something right here? I at all times wish to take the largest challenges and I’ve fallen brief in a few of my fights, however I nonetheless need to have the ability to imagine in myself and take these massive fights like that.”
Holm isn’t taking a step again for her subsequent struggle, which takes place at UFC 300 on April 13.
Awaiting Holm on the landmark occasion is two-time PFL champion and two-time Olympic gold medal-winning judoka Kayla Harrison, who makes her octagon debut on the occasion. Harrison has opened as a large favourite over Holm and the chances have solely made Holm extra excited concerning the matchup.
“I believe what it’s is being such an underdog will get you—I don’t know, there’s only a completely different feeling with it,” Holm mentioned. “That’s simply form of how I really feel about this struggle. It’s form of intrigued me, it’s a unique struggle, perhaps as a result of it’s additionally not anyone that has been within the UFC. As a result of your thoughts is on all these folks, so when this got here in it was simply form of a brand new journey, a brand new web page, a brand new fighter to essentially assume this might be a type of epic fights in historical past.”
