UFC 193 video: Holly Holm says Jon Jones sent her motivational text with Bible scripture

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

In a little over 24 hours, Holly Holm will take part in the biggest fight of her life. After 17 previous title defenses over three separate weight classes in an entirely different sport, Holm is perfectly experienced to handle the magnitude of big-fight scenarios.

However, she has never made a walk down to the Octagon in front of 70,000 people to challenge one of the most dominant fighters in recent memory.

With anxiety, stress and fear building up as the event nears, fighters find solace in the support of their teammates and the thoughtful well wishes they receives over that time. IN Holm’s case, that was a text from former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who texted her on Friday to wish her luck.

“I just got a text from Jon Jones. Just a motivational one. Bible scripture. Just kind of just keeping it down to earthly and doing it real, and just, you know, some of the teammates just saying ‘you’re gonna do this’.”

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About the author

Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.