Holly Holm News

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2017

Last night, the UFC closed out the year 2017 with UFC 219, a stacked card that went down in glimmering Las Vegas, Nevada. In the main event of this anticipated pay-per-view, UFC women’s featherweight queen Cris Cyborg attempted her first title defense opposite former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm. In advance of this fight, Holm was considered one of the toughest tests of Cyborg’s incredible career thus far, and as it turns out, these suspicions proved accurate. Despite Cyborg’s fight-ending power and vaunted aggression, Holm hung in there for five, fun rounds, even popping the champ with solid strikes of her own on a few occasions. In the eyes of some fans, she even won a few rounds. In the end, however, Cyborg’s patience, volume, aggression and cage control earned her a just unanimous decision win.

Chris Taylor - December 30, 2017

Pros react to Cris Cyborg’s victory over Holly Holm! Cris Cyborg retained her UFC featherweight championship in the main event of tonight’s UFC 219 fight card in Las Vegas by defeating Holy Holm via unanimous decision.

Chris Taylor - December 30, 2017

A women’s featherweight title fight between current champion Cris Cyborg and former bantamweight title holder Holly Holm served as the main event of tonight’s UFC 219 fight card in Las Vegas. HERE WE GO!!#UFC219 pic.twitter.com/mNFW134MAk

Justin Golightly - December 30, 2017

The main and co-main event of UFC 219 are some of the best fights all year, with the match-ups that we’ve had in 2017, that’s high praise. Cris Cyborg defending her women’s UFC featherweight title against Holly Holm is arguably the biggest female fight of all-time. Meanwhile, Khabib Nurmagomedov makes his triumphant return to fight against top contender and dangerous striker Edson Barboza in a war for title contention. It’s interesting to see Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh’s outlook on the match-ups — especially the co-main event — seeing as how he could still be a future opponent for McGregor, especially if he does end up ever fighting in Russia. “Khabib [Nurmagomedov] by stoppage in the championship rounds. He will be hit in the first but wrestling, in particular his body lock, will break [ Edson] Barboza as fight progresses. Ground-and-pound stoppage in fourth or fifth round. [Holly] Holm by stoppage within three rounds. The lack of size advantage [for Cris Cybog] plus Holm’s technical ability in striking will decide this. Cyborg relies on strength and intimidation a lot, she wont have that here.” – John Kavanagh via his Twitter.

Drake Riggs - December 28, 2017

Holly Holm is no stranger to big fights. Whether it be in boxing or MMA, she’s been a championship level fighter where ever she’s gone. A win over UFC Featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg would be a record setter for “The Preacher’s Daughter” which is just extra pressure added onto her against an already tough task in the fight alone. Holm chatted with Ariel Helwani today about that, her fun and interactive open workout and more.

Justin Golightly - December 28, 2017

In a couple of days, Holly Holm will step into the Octagon to try and dethrone the dominant Cris Cyborg and take her featherweight title. Having beat Ronda Rousey at the top of her career, a win over Cyborg will put her as the best women’s fighter of all time and the first ever women’s two-division champion. Add that to her boxing accolades and it’s hard to argue for anyone else. However, there is one other fighter who has given Rousey a loss: Current UFC bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes. Who is also ready to cement her place as the best female fighter on the planet by beating whoever comes out on top this Saturday. “We have the utmost respect for [Cris] Cyborg and [Holly] Holm, it’d be a great fight with either one, but we believe Amanda [Nunes] could be champion in both divisions, because she has all the tools for that. She is an extremely well rounded fighter and has been showing that she does deserve to face the winner. That’s our main focus for 2018. Of course we know she has no way to defend two belts, but that decision would be taken after her fight against the Cyborg vs. Holm winner.” — American Top Team coach Conan Silveira speaking to Portal do Vale Tudo.

Justin Golightly - December 27, 2017

We are just a few days away from the biggest women’s MMA fight since Holly Holm first took the bantamweight title away from Ronda Rousey back in 2015. Holm will take on Cris Cyborg in a huge main event with the featherweight title on the line. The comparisons to the approaching moment has not been lost on the Jackson Wink fighter or her coaches. A win here not only would make Holly Holm a two-division UFC champion, but also the best female fighter in the world. Even if there was no belt on the line, that’s what means more to her. “I want to do things in this world and in my life that haven’t been done before. If there’s no female that’s done it before, guess what? I want to do it. That’s something that’s always driven me. I’m a driven person. That’s something that really drives me. On the flip side of that coin, I would still want to beat [Cris Cyborg] just as badly even if it wasn’t for the belt. Yes, to be a champion in two divisions is huge but just to win against one of the most highly respected fighters, that’s where the real pride is.”

Drake Riggs - December 26, 2017

Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez knows a thing or two about fighting. He has been one of the Lightweight division’s very best for the better half of the last ten years. Primarily known as the king of Strikeforce, Melendez defended a Strikeforce title six times overall and was a three-time champion. He also was the very first ever WEC champion. Nowadays, Melendez has been trying his hand as an analyst and has been doing a great job. Since it’s the week of UFC 219 which is headlined by the big Featherweight title fight that pits Cris Cyborg against Holly Holm, Melendez took the time to share his thoughts with ESPN on how Holm can defeat the seemingly unbeatable, Cyborg.

Drake Riggs - December 21, 2017

“Holly Holm can not knock anybody out with one punch… In boxing, she was wearing them down, throwing a lot of punches but she doesn’t have that one punch knockout. So, I told Cyborg, ‘do not underestimate her but that is something you may not have to be too concerned about.’. Of course, do not underestimate her because she is a great mover and she has a lot of ring intelligence. Also, beware of the southpaw, do a lot of sparring with southpaw as she is doing right now and always remember to try to lean more to the left instead of the right. Going to the right you can run into one of her strong weapons, which is her right. So think a little bit about that and I think she’s going to beat Holm. ” 

Justin Golightly - December 15, 2017

It’s a huge fight. A career-defining bout with big stakes. The title is on the line and Holly Holm is the underdog against one of, if not the best women fighter on the planet. Does this all sound familiar? Back at UFC 193, Holm hit the ‘kick heard ’round the world’ on Rousey and earned the biggest MMA victory of her life in front of a stunned audience. Those comparisons aren’t lost on Coach Mike Winkeljohn either. He recently broke down his thoughts on the fight and predicts Holm stops Cyborg to shock the world once again. “Oh, absolutely [there are comparisons to the fight with Ronda Rousey]. You know what, behind the scenes when we fought Ronda we were pretty confident that we had the proper game plan to beat Ronda. Everybody thought we were crazy, everyone thought Holly was crazy when she first fought Christy Martin back in the early days in boxing cause Christy Martin knocked everyone out, and Holly made that look easy, and she had what I call that ‘Christy Martin’ moment where Christy tried to throw a punch at her, Holly slipped under and then Christy almost went through the ropes. Guess what? Ronda did the same thing, and it’s gonna happen in the Cris Cyborg fight, she’s gonna have that same moment.”

Justin Golightly - December 6, 2017

After many, many months of hype, negotiations and a back-and-forth suspense on if the fight would be on UFC 219, Cris Cyborg will finally defend her women’s UFC featherweight title against Holly Holm. When the division was first created for the dominant Brazilian fighter, it’s the match-up we all thought would be for the belt and now it’s happening. Coach Jason Parillo vows a knockout victory for Cyborg, which may be aided by some “help” that the champ has received from some Brazilian fighters in New Mexico. However, Cyborg claims she didn’t need the advice and honorably refused it. “Many Brazilians are excited about this fight. Both times I fought in Brazil at 63.5kg, the fans wanted me to face Holly [Holm], and since this fight was announced I was surprised by the number of Brazilian fighters who offered me support. Believe it or not, I had some Brazilians who trained in New Mexico who came to share things about their training. Although I thanked them for wanting to see me succeed and continue representing Brazil as champion, I did not let what they said influenced my training. In the end, I do not care what kind of training she’s doing for her confidence, wrestling or boxing. My team is preparing me for the best version of Holly Holm.” 

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2017

Not long ago, UFC President Dana White announced that he and the UFC’s other top decision-makers were floating the idea of promoting boxing matches in the future. This news is likely to have sounded interesting to a number of the UFC’s boxing savvy fighters – particularly upcoming women’s featherweight title challenger Holly Holm, who was a boxing champion long before her UFC career began. While it would be fair to assume this news might interest Holm, however, it apparently doesn’t. Speaking to the media during the festivities for UFC 218 in Detroit, where she was a guest fighter, she assured that her boxing career is over.

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Back when Holly Holm was pitted against Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, Rousey seemed like an unstoppable juggernaut and was heavily favored against the former boxing champion. At UFC 219, the odds will be no different. No one can deny the dominance of Cris Cyborg, especially now that she’s in her proper weight class. With a lack of contenders, it looks like Cyborg could be UFC women’s featherweight champion for a long time. That is, unless Holm has something to say about it. Miesha Tate recently weighed-in on the match-up and thinks Holm has all the righ tools to get the job done. “Of anybody that I can think to fight Cyborg to right now, that has the best chance, I honestly, truly believe that it’s Holly [Holm]. The reason I say that is, if Cyborg cannot get ahold of Holly, if she recklessly chases her down — similar to how Ronda [Rousey] did, not using the correct angles — if she follows her like a missile, which she does in every fight I’ve ever seen before. That’s how she hunts girls down because she can. With Holly, that’s not a good idea. She can cut through those angles. She’s an amazing counter striker and if she lands that head kick, I think she can put anybody away. So stylistically, this makes for a really, really interesting fight.”

Justin Golightly - November 15, 2017

Ever since her victory over Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 to become the new UFC featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg has been on a warpath to try and defend her title against Holly Holm. There was a whole social media campaign for a fight that seemed like the only option, at least with Invicta FC featherweight champ Megan Anderson’s UFC status still up in the air. The match-up went from being a no-brainer on UFC 219 to dead in the water. Don’t lose hope yet though, Cyborg’s coach Jason Parillo recently just revealed that she will be fighting soon. “Well, I mean I happen to be sitting here with [Cyborg] right now at lunch and her manager. Something is going to be happening. It’s not my job to open my mouth about it, but there’s definitely something exciting in the works, for sure. Cris Cyborg’s a champion. Gun to my head, we’ll see her fight very soon.” — Jason Parillo speaking to the Extra Rounds Podcast.  

Justin Golightly - October 17, 2017

This morning, USADA paid a visit to Cris Cyborg today for her third test in a month. There was no problem, except for Cyborg wants the same testing frequency for her potential opponent Holly Holm, or any opponent for that matter. Does this mean they’re still in negotiations? Either way, Cyborg took to Twitter to make her request known and eventually drew out a shade-filled response from Holly Holm herself. I’ve actually just wasted a minute of my life on this video.

Russell Ess - October 9, 2017

Many are wondering when we will see Cris Cyborg make her way back to the Octagon to defend the UFC women’s featherweight title. Cyborg won the women’s 145-pound belt in July after the promotion stripped the title from the inaugural champion, Germaine de Randamie, after she refused to fight Cyborg who was the number one contender at the time. Cyborg met former Invicta bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger at UFC 214 after de Randamie was stripped of the title where Cyborg was able to stop Evinger in the third round by TKO to win the vacant title.

Justin Golightly - September 8, 2017

Although Demetrious Johnson’s quest for MMA history will be postponed, Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko are good to go this time. It’s a rematch between two of the top women in the sport right now, with the UFC bantamweight title on the line. Another former UFC champ, Holly Holm, knows exactly what it’s like to be in Nunes’ position. In July of last year, Holm tested Shevchenko’s toughness and lost a decision to the Polish striker. It’s one of the reasons she is picking Shevchenko over Nunes tomorrow at UFC 215. “I think Amanda Nunes is a very tough girl; Valentina [Shevchenko] is far more technical. I think everyone knows Amanda likes power shots, and Shevchenko is a lot more technical. I think Shevchenko can take the belt away. Anything can happen in a fight. Don’t get me wrong, but I think Shevchenko can do it.” — Holly Holm speaking to MMA Junkie.

Russell Ess - September 1, 2017

There has been a bit of a debate regarding the 10th round TKO stoppage in the Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor money fight. McGregor said after the fight was over that he would have liked it if the ref let the fight go on as he claimed he was more fatigued than hurt.