For the first time in almost 10 years, Holly Holm thinking about professional boxing.
More clearly, Holm’s main focus remains MMA and regaining the UFC bantamweight title she won in 2015 and surrendered in 2016. Holm (14-5) faces Ketlen Vieira during Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event in Las Vegas. If she wins, she’ll win three in a row – and possibly her first UFC title since the fight. Amanda Nunes in 2019.
“If I want to get to the belt, I have to go through Ketlen Vieira,” Holm told ESPN. “She’s probably one of the toughest opponents I could have going back there. I have to do it right. I have to show my ability.”
Victory over Vieira (12-2) this weekend and a UFC title fight later this year – those are Holm’s immediate goals. But beyond that, what else?
Since Holm, 40, retired from professional boxing as a three-division champion to switch to MMA in 2013, she has rarely spoken publicly about boxing. She has maintained a love and respect for the sport she has played professionally for 11 years but has shown no interest in returning to the ring.
“I haven’t heard her talk about boxing since her last professional fight,” said Mike Winkeljohn, her coach in boxing and MMA. “In fact, I even think there were a few fights left in her boxing career once she finished it. She wanted to move on. After she left, everyone would still talk about it and try to get her to fight back, and she would go, “No. I’m done.” Her entire MMA career, she never thought about boxing.”
However, two recent developments have changed that.
In December, Holm (33-2-3, 9 KOs in boxing) was announced as part of the 2022 boxer class at the International Boxing Hall of Fame. When she is introduced in June, Holm will be one of only six women to make it to the Hall.
Holm was also inspired by last month’s lightweight title fight between Katie Taylor (21-0, 6 KOs) and Amanda Serrano (42-2-1, 30 KOs), the first women’s boxing match to hit the mark. theme for an event at Madison Square Garden in New York. Taylor, of Ireland, won the split deciding match.
The event happened close to home for Holm. Her manager, Lenny Fresquez, has a long relationship with Taylor’s manager, Brian Peters, and the managers have big plans for the boxers.
“Katie wanted to beat Holly right away,” Fresquez said of Taylor’s early career goals. “We’ve kept in touch for many years, and I was so happy for them the night before. I know they still want that fight. I called Holly and said, ‘Fourteen years later, they still want to fight the fight. friend.” We’re under contract with the UFC, so we’ll have to [president] Dana White involved something similar. But I think [chances of Holm boxing again] pretty good. I think they’re pretty good. “
Of course, any talk of Holm returning to boxing is premature – but that also aligns with her reputation as a competitor. Holm has big dreams. She has challenged herself throughout her career in combat sports, which is why she is the only one to hold major titles in boxing and MMA.
And when her mind wanders to the future – beyond Saturday’s main event – it goes beyond the Octagon.
“I thought of doing both,” Holm said. “And my last boxing match, there was a debate about whether it would be 135 or 140 pounds. I won the title at 140. I wish I would push that. [fight at 135] much more because I could have been a four-league champion. I won titles at 140, 147, and 154 pounds. And we knew I could make 135 because that’s what I do in MMA. I don’t know if that turns out to be a weird, unfinished business for me to go back and win at 135 or something.
“But why not [actively hold titles in two sports]? I think that sounds great. “
If Holm returns to boxing, she will restart a career that stands out in the history of the sport. She never competed in the Olympics because women’s boxing was not an Olympic sport until 2012. She basically skipped an amateur career and made her professional debut in 2002 at the age of 20. Much of her career took place in her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Fresquez as her promoter.
“I think her first contract with me was $1,000 per game, four games a year minimum, four rounds,” Fresquez said. “She’s just getting started, but others are already making $400 per game. Holly is an instant result. She has long, attractive blonde hair. Fans are crazy for her. The weightlifting section alone would draw in between 100 and 200. And she fought every heavyweight No. 1 contender we could find. Who was the best from 140 to 1. 154 pounds.”
Holm left boxing for MMA in 2013 and set a 6-0 record before signing with the UFC in 2015. She became the UFC’s 135-pound champion in one of the most memorable performances in history. history of the sport on November 14, 2015, knocking then undefeated Ronda Rousey in the second round in front of a record crowd of 56,214 at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia.
Holm isn’t the only one to compete in boxing and MMA, but she’s the most successful. Whether any fighter will when matching her track record in many professional sports is a legitimate question to ask.
“I can’t see anyone doing it at a higher level than her,” said Winkeljohn, who also coaches two-sport athletes. Claressa Shields. “I hope it happens again, because that means both sports are growing, but I’ve seen a lot of fighters come and try MMA, and they don’t want to take the time to learn. necessary skill set.. Boxers spend thousands of hours perfecting their art, and now you have to spend thousands of hours learning MMA. There just aren’t enough hours in your life to do that.”
Holm is the only one to do that. And quietly, behind the scenes, the seeds are being planted for her to be able to do it again. She’s not a UFC champion at the moment, but she’s not far off. She is ranked 2nd in bantamweight and faces a legitimate opponent in Vieira, who is going 6-2 in the Octagon.
This “UFC fighter turns into a fighter” idea has become a trend in MMA recently. UFC Champion Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou expressed a serious interest in boxing, and Conor McGregor infamously fought Floyd Mayweather in 2017 and has explored the possibility of boxing yet again. So if Holm were to go after a boxing match, she would be in line with the trend.
“There’s a different level of excitement for me when it comes to boxing, because I’ve been there,” Holm said. “I know Dana White is still proud of what I’ve done in boxing and looks at me a little differently. Here’s the thing about me coming to boxing: I’m not going because, ‘Oh, it’s a fight. and it’s a payday’, or because it’s the right thing to do right now. I won’t be in the drama.”
Holm’s interest in boxing is undeniably distinct, and she’s optimistic that the UFC will see it differently. While the focus remains on MMA, for the first time in a decade, the door to boxing has been broken.
