Holly Holm shocked the world when she knocked out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 to become the promotion’s new women’s bantamweight champion. “The Preacher’s Daughter” entered the bout as a heavy underdog but left Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia as WMMA’s breakout star.
Holm was expected to steamroll through Miesha Tate at UFC 196 to set up an eventual rematch with “Rowdy” by the end of the year, but the MMA Gods had other plans. The former boxing world champion was relieved of the bantamweight title when Cupcake choked her unconscious in the 5th round.
The UFC are now expected to book Tate vs Rousey III while Holm is forced to wait for the outcome.
“You know, if that’s the case then…I think things will play out how they play out,” Holm on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour (h/t Chuck Mindenhall of MMA Fighting). “I think other people will see that if she’s coming back now there’s a different motive. I know for me I want to be able to fight, and I know that now that the championship isn’t mine I can’t really delegate or say what I want. It’s frustrating. I have nobody to blame but myself. I’m the one that lost the fight.”
UFC president Dana White slammed Holm’s management for choosing to accept a fight with Tate instead of waiting for a mega-money rematch with Rousey. Holm, however, is hopeful that she squares off again with Rousey in the near-future but admits that her number one focus is on avenging the loss to Miesha Tate.
“If they put [Rousey vs. Tate III] on then I guess I’m just going to have to suck it up and wait for my opportunity,” she said. “I’d love to rematch both of them. Of course, if I had it my way I’d like to be able to avenge my loss, because that’s the thing that put a bitter taste in my mouth right now.
“That’s what I want to do is work for that, but I would take either fight for sure. Which is just how it is always. I always want to take whatever opportunities that I have, I want to be able to do that. I mean, but obviously I want to avenge my loss. That’s the biggest thing on my mind.”
It’s anticipated that the trilogy fight between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate will take place by the end of the year, but Holm hasn’t closed the door on a potential bout in the meantime.
“I still want to fight,” she said. “I want to see if we can get the rematch for sure. But, I do still want to fight. You know, we’ll see what happens. I don’t know what they’ll want to put together.”
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