Holly Holm on Ronda Rousey’s future: ‘Once a fighter, always a fighter’
Holly Holm’s coach, Mike Winkeljohn, suggested last week that Holm’s November 2015 knockout of Ronda Rousey “broke” the formerly dominant bantamweight champion from Venice.
And UFC President Dana White has said that Rousey may have fought for the final time following her one-sided technical-knockout loss to current champion Amanda Nunes of Brazil in December in a bout that lasted less than one minute.
Viewing the situation from a different place, one influenced by respect and understanding, Holm says, “I don’t feel like I ‘broke’ her, but my knockout helped Nunes win faster.”
Holm, scheduled to fight Germaine De Randamie for the UFC’s newly created women’s featherweight belt Saturday night in the UFC 208 main event at Barclays Center in New York, explained that before Rousey’s return bout against Nunes, she was telling friends, “Coming off the knockout, it is very hard mentally and emotionally.
“You second-guess yourself.”
Holm was bloodied in the face and stopped by boxer Anne Sophie Mathis previously in her championship pro boxing career.
“I remember getting knocked out and thinking in sparring every time I’d get hit, ‘Am I OK? Yeah, I’m OK. Am I OK? Yeah, I’m OK,’” Holm said. “But no matter what happens in training, it’s real in the fight. The real moment and the real test in coming back from a knockout is in the fight. There’s some moments you get those first punches landed on you and it’s a make-or-break moment.”
Rousey immediately began absorbing punches to the head from Nunes in their Dec. 30 fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I told my friends I didn’t know who was going to win. However, I’ll be able to tell you who’s going to win after the first few punches,” she said. “Because Ronda’s going to think, ‘Oh, no, not again …,’ [and respond defiantly to the blows] or, ‘Oh, hell no, this is happening again’ [and succumb].”
“There was two mind-sets you can go to. That was the moment. And it’s really hard to tell your mind differently. Your mind is very powerful.”
Holm said she’s convinced such a one-sided beating “wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t already knock her out before. If Amanda Nunes had fought her before Ronda and I fought, I do believe that fight would’ve gone longer. I don’t think anybody would argue with me on that.”
In Holm’s case, she responded to the knockout loss to Mathis by outboxing her and winning a decision in a rematch six months later.
Holm now is seeking to rid the demons of back-to-back losses to Miesha Tate and No. 1 women’s bantamweight contender Valentina Shevchenko last year. Should she defeat De Randamie, an intriguing bout would be a Holm-Rousey rematch at featherweight.
“Who knows if Ronda’s done or not,” Holm said. “Maybe she just needs time to really take time off. I don’t know how much she changed from that.
“I’m one of those who believe, ‘Once a fighter, always a fighter.’ She might not ever fight again. Or she might not fight for two years and then say, ‘I’m really aching for it. I want to get back in there. I’ve had enough of this regular life business.’
“I bet she feels like she wants to focus on some other things right now — going from that big high to a big low. I have a lot of respect for her and I always have. I hope she’s happy and does what she wants to do — fighting or focusing on other things.
“But a fighter … they might come back. You never know.”
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