Holly Holm undergoing knee surgery, hopes for fight with Amanda Nunes in 2019

When it comes to big-name MMA stars amongst the female fighters, few are as big as the former bantamweight queen Holly Holm.

Of course, outside of her legendary status as a professional boxer, Holm was the very first woman to ever defeat Ronda Rousey in MMA. And she did so in incredibly one-sided fashion for a stunning upset.

Unfortunately for “The Preacher’s Daughter”, a rough patch would follow her superstar status boosting victory as she would immediately drop her title to the former Strikeforce champion Miesha Tate in her first attempted title defense.

In an attempt to rebound, Holm would then face this Saturday night’s flyweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko who soundly outpointed Holm four rounds to one over the course of their five-round contest.

By this time, the UFC had decided it was time to create a featherweight 145-pound division and they wanted Holm to be one of the first fighters to vie for the title so she took on her fellow very talented striker in Germaine de Randamie as the two headlined UFC 208 for the vacant crown.

It would be de Randamie who would come out on top in a controversial bout. Holm would then drop back down to 135-pounds to earn a win over Bethe Correia before challenging the new featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. A bout in which she would also come out on the wrong end of.

Most recently, Holm got back on track with a win over the former Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson at UFC 225 in June.

It has now been learned via ESPN that Holm will be undergoing knee surgery that will keep her out of action for the rest of 2018. And although her last fight and win came at 145-pounds, she has her eyes on the bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes upon her return.

Nunes will next be challenging for Cyborg’s featherweight crown at UFC 232 on December 29. A win would make her the very first female to win UFC titles in two different divisions.

on 9/7/2018