The UFC women’s bantamweight title bout between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm was expected to take place in January, but an injury to Robbie Lawler will move the bout up to the UFC 193 stadium show in November. Holm was a bit of a surprise choice for the title shot as most thought it was going to go to Miesha Tate. Nonetheless, Holm will get her chance, and she told Inside MMA that her opponent’s balanced game is going to make her very difficult to defeat (transcribed by MMA Mania):
“She’s got a well-rounded game. I’m not going in there thinking, ‘oh I only have to worry about, you know, grappling.’ I do know she has knockout power so I don’t feel like you guys are going to see what you’ve seen before with her. I fear everything about her. Standup, ground, clinch, all that. And I feel like that’s the way you need to be with any fighter.”
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“There’s things that transfer over [from boxing] and things that don’t. There’s things from my boxing career that I had to let go of that would not work, especially in this fight. I mean, you can’t just stand there and do inside boxing with someone who’s very good at judo.”
But she does believe that Rousey can be beaten:
“Everybody’s beatable. Is it going to be hard as heck? Absolutely. It’s going to be the hardest fight of my career. I have to absolutely do everything right from the beginning to the end of the fight. Is it going to be easy? No, that is not what I’m saying. But I’m going in there to win and it’s very possible.”
Holm has picked up decision wins in each of her two UFC fights to date. Rousey is coming off a 34-second win over Bethe Correia earlier this month. UFC 193 goes down in Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on November 15th.
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