Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm said that she is still open to rematching longtime rival Ronda Rousey.
Holm knocked out Rousey at UFC 193 in November 2015 in what is still, to this day, one of the greatest upsets of all time in MMA history. 11 years later, and many fans and observers of the sport still want to see the rematch between these two, especially after seeing Rousey return from a 10-year layoff to finish Gina Carano in the first round of their fight at MVP MMA on Netflix.
With Holm currently being promoted by MVP Boxing, a fight with Rousey seems easy to get booked if they both want it. If you ask Holm, she’ll definitely take this fight again.
Holly Holm Open to Ronda Rousey Rematch
Speaking to MMAFighting.com ahead of her boxing rematch this weekend against Stephanie Han, Holm was asked if she’s open to a rematch with Rousey, and she said yes.
“Yes, a lot of talk with the Ronda fight. I highly doubt she’ll ever want a rematch. I always have said since the minute the last fight was over, I’ll always rematch her. That’s always been available. But she wanted to come back and have this win and go back and enjoy and have a win like that. No hate from me. I hope she does well. I hope she does whatever she wants with her life. That’s her life. I’d always be open to fight her again,” Holm said.
At age 44, Holm is no spring chicken, but she has been competing in boxing and doing well since she left the UFC in 2024. Rousey is 39 years old and is said to be going back into retirement after beating Carano, but perhaps a rematch with Holm could be enough to coax her into fighting again.
Holly Holm has Nothing But Respect for Ronda Rousey
Though they are longtime rivals in MMA, Holm said that she holds no ill will towards Rousey and that she has nothing but respect for her.
“All the respect to her. The whole reason why me beating her was such a big deal is because she was so dominant. You have to have a dominant champion in order to have a big upset. So I have all the respect for her and to her. I’ll never say anything negative. But then there’s like the fighter pride of things and a win is great but also to try to win that good or put that much of a stamp on something, anybody would be lying if they said they weren’t proud of it. I’m proud that I went in and did what I did. But I’m a fighter. That’s what we do. We go to win,” Holm said.
We’ll see if MVP MMA can convince Rousey to come back and fight Holm in a rematch, because this is the biggest women’s MMA fight any promotion could book that’s not in the UFC. While Rousey does seem to be done, perhaps getting the chance to get one back on Holm could be what it takes to get her to step into the cage one last time.
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