Holly Holm Doesn’t Care If Ronda Rousey Returns To MMA
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm attended the UFC 197 press conference on Wednesday to promote her upcoming title defense against Miesha Tate in the co-main event of UFC 197. During that press conference, Holm had to talk about Ronda Rousey, whom she dominated then knocked out in devastating fashion to win the title at UFC 193.
Holm explained that if Rousey wants to come back for a rematch then that’s great or if she doesn’t come back to MMA and stays in Hollywood then that’s great. Either way, Holm is happy for her.
“For me I want to keep fighting and if Ronda wants to come back and that’s her passion — great. If she wants to stay in movies — great,” Holm said on Wednesday at the press conference.
“I think that I would rather meet someone in the cage when they’re passionate about it. I don’t want it to be because they feel like they have to, or it’s expected, or other people are curious about it. It’s Ronda’s life, I want her to do what she wants to do.”
Holm then brought up boxing and how Laila Ali ended her career a lot shorter than people thought she would. Holm believes that Rousey might be in that spot now.
“In my whole boxing career, Laila Ali kind of ended short of what a lot of people thought. They always used to ask me, ‘What do you think about that? I think that she should stick around and prove this and prove that.’ Well, if she doesn’t want to fight, I don’t want to watch her fight,” Holm said. “I don’t want to watch a fighter doing it that’s not passionate about it.
“So if Ronda wants to fight, awesome. If she wants to go onto different avenues of her life, great, whatever.”
Rousey has gone on record by saying that she would be back fighting again, but not until later this year. It’s expected that once Rousey is ready to fight and if Holm is still champion after UFC 197 then the UFC will book the fight.
