‘She Wasn’t Better Than Me, Especially That Night’

Holly Holm isn’t deeply offended by Ronda Rousey’s recent comments about their fight, but she definitely doesn’t agree.

The inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Bantamweight champion went on one of the most historic and important runs in mixed martial arts (MMA) history from 2011 to 2015. Rousey, 37, dominated her way through 12 consecutive opponents with next to no resistance, finishing them all, bringing women to the forefront in the process.

However, all things come to an end eventually. That was the case when Rousey ran into Holm at UFC 193 in November 2015. “Rowdy” suffered a second round head kick knockout to lose her belt. A tough 48-second knockout at the hands of Amanda Nunes followed for Rousey before she retired and pursued a professional wrestling career. Despite that, she recently expressed her belief that she’s “the greatest fighter who has ever lived” and dealt with concussions ahead of the Holm loss.

“I say this all out of respect,” Holm said at UFC 300 media day. “In order to have a big upset like that fight was, you have to have a dominant champion. So, without her being so dominant then I couldn’t have been able to have such an upset. With that being said, I was the better fighter. I was the better fighter that night, and every fighter at this point, if you have made a career of fighting, you’ve had a concussion at some point.

“You go back and look at some of my boxing fights and some of the things that I’ve done, I’ve definitely had some concussions,” she continued. “I’ll never sit here and use that as an excuse for any loss. I think that it’s probably just hard for her to really … want to like maybe admit that I was the better fighter. Was she so dominant and a good champion? 100 percent. I give her that, but she wasn’t better than me, and especially that night.”

While Rousey’s overall athletic career winds down, the 42-year-old Holm continues her MMA journey. Holm will welcome Rousey’s former Judo teammate, Kayla Harrison, to UFC at UFC 300 this weekend (Sat., April 13, 2024).

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