Holly Holm pulled off one of the crucial beautiful upsets in fight sports activities historical past when she scored a vicious head kick knockout over Ronda Rousey to develop into bantamweight champion at UFC 193 in 2015. Sadly her reign ended lower than 4 months later when Holm was submitted by Miesha Tate at UFC 196, however it seems that wasn’t the combat the promotion needed.
UFC CEO Dana White claims he desperately tried to e-book Holm in a rematch towards Rousey that might have paid her a ridiculous sum of money however finally her crew handed on the provide. White addressed the topic after criticizing Jon Jones’ crew for turning down a late-notice opponent change to face Chael Sonnen after Dan Henderson suffered an harm that finally led to UFC 151 being utterly cancelled.
White says Holm endured equally unhealthy recommendation when the provide was on the desk to run it again with Rousey for an enormous improve in her pay from the primary combat.
“These are the identical guys that had Holly Holm and in my view ruined her life,” White instructed The Jim Rome Present.
“She had the chance to rematch instantly Ronda Rousey and for unbelievable cash. They turned it down and so they stated ‘we don’t need that combat. We’ll combat Miesha Tate for a similar cash we have now now.’”
On the time, Rousey was one of many greatest stars on the whole UFC roster and her loss was definitely one of the crucial stunning moments within the historical past of the game.
White revealed that the UFC wasted no time in making an attempt to e-book the rematch to capitalize on the eye the primary combat obtained, however Holm’s crew simply wasn’t .
“So huge drama goes on between us all,” White stated. “I stated so that you need to combat the second-baddest girl on the earth for a similar cash as an alternative of combating [Ronda Rousey]? [They said] ‘Sure, that’s what we wish.’
“I instructed them in that assembly, ask my matchmakers, Lorenzo Fertitta, I stated she’s going to lose by choke. She’s going to choke her out. That’s precisely what occurred. For a similar cash as an alternative of combating Ronda for life-changing cash that might have modified her life.”
Whereas it was a back-and-forth combat all through, Holm finally suffered a fifth-round rear-naked choke submission loss to Tate and that ended her run as champion. Holm did compete in three extra UFC title fights, however she by no means gained one other championship belt earlier than asking for her launch from the promotion in early 2025.
Since that point, Holm returned to her roots in boxing after signing with Jake Paul’s Most Precious Promotions.
As for Rousey, she ended up sitting out for over a 12 months after that loss to Holm and finally returned for a title combat towards Amanda Nunes. Rousey suffered a nasty first-round knockout in that combat, which served as her ultimate look within the UFC earlier than calling it a profession.
Holm and Rousey by no means met once more.
