Holly Holm is in line to become the very first two-weight women’s champion in the UFC, yet it seems all anyone can talk about is a potential rematch with Ronda Rousey.
The UFC scheduled a little bit of history last week, by announcing Holm would face Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York on February 11th for the inaugural women’s featherweight championship.
And, just like the rest of the MMA community, Holm admits she was surprised to get the first title shot and detailed the path that eventually ended up in a title fight, which included many twists and turns.
“There’s been about four fights that have been set up over the last three weeks,” Holm revealed. “There were a couple opponents they talked about. They said, ‘Do you want to fight ‘Cyborg’ at 140?’ I said sure. That didn’t go through so they said Cat Zingano, January 28 in Denver and I said ok, but that’d didn’t go through.
“Then they just called, I was just done training – I’ve been training really hard lately, actually. Partly because I know I can because my hand is healed from my last fight, and partly because whatever came, I wanted to be ready for. I was actually at the gym and Mr Winklejohn was on his way out of town and called and said, ‘Holly, I hate to bug you, I’m out of town. Germaine de Randamie, at 145 for the belt on February 11. I think it’s great. What do you think?’”
With the prospect of Holm beating de Randamie and Rousey in the running to recapture the bantamweight championship next Friday, when she takes on Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, there is a very real possibility the UFC could put together the first women’s champion vs. champion bout and set up one of the biggest rematches in MMA history. Holm, however, is putting the breaks on that idea as a lot needs to fall into place.
“I don’t think about it because there’s a lot that has to happen,” Holm told MMA Junkie. “That’s what I tell people when they ask about it and say, ‘Hey, don’t you want to rematch Ronda?’ Well, there’s still a fight that’s taking place December 30 and a fight that’s taking place Feb 11. Depending on how both of those go, that could be the make or break of everything. Who knows what’s going to happen in three months? Anything can happen in three months.”
