Holly Holm reacts following controversial loss to Ketlen Vieira at UFC Vegas 55: “I thought I won the fight”

Holly Holm firmly believes she should’ve had her hand raised at the conclusion of UFC Vegas 55.

This past Saturday night (May 21), Holm shared the Octagon with Ketlen Vieira. The action was held inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The action went the distance and Vieira was awarded the split decision victory.

While the fight was competitive, the general consensus amongst MMA reporters was that Holm deserved to win the fight. In fact, 18 of the 20 reporters accounted for on MMADecisions.com scored the fight for Holm.

During her post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier, Holly Holm expressed her belief that the wrong fighter won on this night (h/t MMAJunkie.com).

“I thought I won the fight. I gave her Round 2, and I feel like I won all the rest of the rounds. I always feel like I can do more and be more perfect, but I thought I won the fight. I don’t feel like it was a question.”

Holm said that going into the fight, she was more concerned with Vieira going for trip takedowns.

“I think more we were worried about her trips and stuff, and I was able to kind of shut them down,” Holm said. “I wanted to obviously be more active in the clinch. She made that a little difficult because she’s got a pretty good whizzer and everything. But I was still able to control her in those areas and get some strikes off.”

As far as her future goes, the 40-year-old said she has to figure things out.

“Well, I feel like I won the fight, so I’ve got to figure out what’s gonna happen now,” Holm said. “One step forward or one step back is how that usually goes. It’s what happens.”

The loss has snapped Holm’s two-fight winning streak. It’s her first defeat since July 2019.