Holly Holm was beginning to get somewhat impatient with her situation before finally securing a fight with Julianna Pena.
Holm (14-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC), a former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, has been waiting for her next assignment since a dominant decision win over Irene Aldana in October. She’s trying to put together a run that warrants a rematch with dual UFC champ Amanda Nunes.
It wasn’t easy finding a willing foe, though. Holm claims Germaine de Randamie turned down a rematch before Pena (10-4 MMA, 6-2 UFC) stepped up for a three-round matchup at a UFC Fight Night event on May 8.
“It was one of those things where I really didn’t know when I was going to fight again,” Holm told MMA Junkie. “We were waiting for answers from Germaine. She said no. Then Pena said no. From what I understand, she said she only wanted a title fight. Then a lot of the other girls were scheduled or had just fought and I thought, ‘I don’t know who I’m going to fight or when.’ I thought, ‘I’m just going to keep drilling and trying to get better if something comes up,’ then it comes up. But I didn’t really know. Then sure enough, boom, Pena took the fight and we were ready to rock and roll.”
Holm is about as laid back a person as you’ll find in the fight game. She said she always tries to find a happy medium over being overzealous or overly passive about her career, but at 39, time is of the essence for “The Preacher’s Daughter.”
The wait got Holm “a little frustrated,” she admitted. But she also knows the reality of her position in the sport, and there needs to be a level of logic behind each trip into the octagon for a fight.
Holm’s goal at this point in her career is to reclaim the UFC belt she lost back in March 2016. She’s had multiple shots to get it back and was most recently denied in her attempt against Nunes at UFC 239 in July 2019.
With Nunes holding UFC belts at both 135 pounds and 145 pounds, there are plenty of people gunning for her belt. Having already lost to “The Lioness” by first-round head kick TKO, Holm knows she needs to make a strong case for herself, and the only way to do that is by fighting the most viable contender.
“What makes that even harder is that Amanda fights at two different weight classes,” Holm said. “I want to show that I deserve to be there for the belt. … I want to fight the top girls, because in order to be the best you’ve got to beat the best. I’m not just always waiting for the title fight. I want to fight to get there. That’s the whole goal. Otherwise, what am I doing this for? I’m not doing this just for the paycheck. I’m not doing this just to participate. I’m not doing it just to say I did it. I’m doing it for a purpose, because I want to be the best in the world.
“In order to be the best in the world, I have to fight the best in the world and beat them, which is for the belt, so whatever I need to do to get there. Obviously make the right decisions for that. It’s not like I want to fight a (debuting fighter). I want to fight the top. Otherwise how am I going to show that I’m ready for this title fight?”
Holm said her top desire was to rematch de Randamie, who she lost a controversial decision against at UFC 208 in February 2018. It didn’t materialize, and now she gets “The Ultimate Fighter 18” winner Pena, who is coming off a submission of Sara McMann at UFC 257 in January.
Pena, No. 5 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie women’s bantamweight rankings, campaigned for a title shot of her own after beating McMann, and she could potentially solidify it with a win over a former UFC champ.
No. 4-ranked Holm has no intention of allowing that to happen, and although she gives high praise to her next opponent, she’s confident the outcome will be in her favor.
“I think she’s got some skill,” Holm said. “She’s got skill in each aspect of the game. I could see her scrapping on the feet or being tricky on the ground. I think that her style, she’s like a scrappy fighter. Some fighters can make a fight messy, she’s like that. I think she’s definitely like that. You can’t count her out. Her last fight I don’t think she was necessarily winning until she finished the fight. So you can’t count her out.
“She’s not going to be mentally beat. I think that she’s not scared. She gets in there with every intent to want to win. There’s a lot of things that give her strength in a fight. I just truly feel like I can do better in those situations, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Holly Holm: Road to Amanda Nunes UFC title rematch goes through ‘scrappy’ Julianna Pena