Holly Holm is Up For Fighting Cris Cyborg at UFC 219

One thing has been on Cris Cyborg’s mind since finally winning the UFC women’s featherweight title: Holly Holm. Although, she doesn’t have too much choice. There aren’t any other girls in the division now that Germaine de Randamie has been stripped and left back to bantamweight. She’s done everything short of directly demanding a fight with Holm at the end of this year, even promising she will ‘find her’ no matter what. Finally, Holm has gone on record that she is willing to fight Cyborg. …Sort of.

“This is me publicly saying, ‘Yes, I am open to the fight at 145 [pounds],'” Holm said. “[But] I’m not going to take a fight at 135 pounds one month, and then the next month it’s, ‘Oh hey, do you want to fight Cyborg at 145?’ This is me going outside of my weight class and that’s OK. I’m willing to take the fight. I just want to have a full training camp. My contract is at 135 pounds. So, if they came with a fight like that [at 145lbs], I would say, ‘Let’s negotiate.’ I truly feel that is one of, if not the biggest, female fights they can promote. I’m not in it for the priority of money, but I value myself. […] This is a huge fight and I’m sure everybody around it, the promotion, is going to make money. So, I would expect more money.”

“I know she kind of gets upset that a lot of people are dodging her — but there are two ways to look at it. Is everybody dodging her, or is she dodging everybody in the 135-pound division? I could go and call out the entire 125-pound division. She’s made 140 pounds. What’s five [more] pounds? If she really, really, really wanted to — yes, I 100 percent think Cyborg can make 135. She’s my exact height.” — Holly Holm speaking to ESPN.

After saying she’s willing to fight Cris Cyborg at UFC 219 for the big, year-end show, she started making some stipulations. She did fight de Randamie to try and become the UFC’s first 145lb champion, but now says that the fight is outside of her weight class and she’s going to need some serious money to move up again. Holm also doubled down on her opinion that Cyborg can make the lower weights. Either way, let’s hope this fight gets put together because there aren’t many women to choose from.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/23/2017.