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Imagine being amazing at what you’re most passionate about in life but still largely known to most of the world for just one of the things you accomplished. Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm is one of the most decorated combat sports athletes in history but that hasn’t kept the 38-year-old from being known to the mainstream masses most as the first person to defeat retired UFC legend Ronda Rousey.
Holm revealed to Heavy last week that it doesn’t bother her at all. In fact, she said she’ll probably never even get sick of it.
“Oh, you know, I honestly always wanted to do something that the entire world would know about, and I did it,” Holm said. “So the fact that people ask about it? Well, that’s why. It’s because I did something everybody saw, so it doesn’t bother me that they ask me about it.”
Holm defeated Rousey via second-round knockout at UFC 193 in November 2015.
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Holm: ‘I Focus on The Future’
Holm said she was grateful for that experience but also that she wouldn’t let her past success keep her from focusing on future goals.
“I obviously made a statement, and it’s something that people are still talking about five years later, so I have to remind myself how memorable it was that people are still talking about it five years later,” Holm said. “But I definitely, for myself, I focus on the future. I’m not going to just live in the past…My whole career is not defined around one fight.”
Five years later, Holm remains on her quest to recapture the UFC gold she won against Rousey but lost in her next fight to Meisha Tate at UFC 196.
Regardless, Holm has been one of the best, most popular and dangerous fighters in MMA over the last half-decade.
She’s the only person in history to ever win a major world title in both boxing and UFC, and she doesn’t believe she’s finished adding to her collection.
In total, Holm has fought in three more UFC title bouts across two divisions since originally losing her bantamweight title belt to in 2016.
But after defeating Irene Aldana over the weekend in Abu Dhabi, Holm believes she could be on her way to getting another one.
“I feel like that’s always a possibility… I’ve always stayed up in the top of the rankings ever since I had the belt. So yeah, once you’re ranked up there and you’re fighting the best, if you can win these fights and make an actual good showing, I think that’s always going to…help you get back into title contention.”
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Is Amanda Nunes Next?
Indeed, UFC’s women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes was keeping her eye on the action at UFC Fight Island 4.
I’m excited for @UFC tonight. Looks like next year I’m going to be very busy.
Nunes defeated Holm via first-round knockout at UFC 239 in 2019 but “The Lioness” has virtually cleaned out two divisions already and will need challengers next year.
Whatever comes next, though, Holm said she always does her best when she remains focused on the present.
That means she’s not overly concerned about how she beat Rousey five years ago or even her potential superfight rematch against Nunes that could happen soon.
“I’m definitely not promising that or putting everything in on that,” Holm said. “I’ll just see what doors open.”
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