Germaine De Randamie Apologizes For Clocking Holm Multiple Times After Bell

Germaine de Randamie may be the new and first-ever UFC women’s featherweight champion, but her history-making win over former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm (watch full video highlights here) was marred by some highly controversial strikes that came after the bell in not one but two rounds in the main event of last night’s UFC 208 from Brooklyn.

‘The Iron Lady’ appeared to rock Holm significantly seconds after the buzzer went off in round two, and many thought that would earn a warning from the ref. But that only came from the official after de Randamie unloaded a sizable combo on ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ after the alarm sounded in the third round, after which de Randamie immediately acknowledged her fault.

Many have criticized and are still very critical of the officiating, which came from a referee inexperienced in main event title fights in the second-ever major UFC event in New York, including some piled-on bashing from UFC President Dana White. Randamie also didn’t do herself any favors by revealing she would have surgery on her hand to fix an injury suffered three fights ago instead of fighting Crsitiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino if she gets cleared from her recent USADA suspension as expected.

She also didn’t show up for the post-fight press conference to truly arrive on the scene as the first women’s 145-pound, yet still, de Randamie offered an apology to Holm for the late punches in her post-fight interview:

“It wasn’t meant for me to hit her after the bell. It was in the heat of the moment. I apologize. I’m not like that.”

De Randamie addressed the outcome of the fight, which most fans seemed to have belonged to Holm even without a point that should have taken from her. In her opinion, Holm simply didn’t come to fight aside from her third-round head kick, and that was evident in her constant but ultimately unsuccessful clinching:

“It was a close fight. She [caught] me in the third round with a head kick. It was close, but I came to fight and she didn’t want to fight me. I’m a brawler. I want to fight. I hoped she was going to fight with me. Holly is a tremendous champion. I truly respect her. But I love to brawl, I love to fight. Clinching is not my game. But whatever.”

De Randamie will now move on to an uncertain future as the initial champion with most fans believing ‘Cyborg’ to simply be the uncrowned champion of the freshest (but more shallow) women’s landscape.

And it might be quite awhile before we get to see Justino prove that against de Randamie.