Holly Holm Never Wants To Win A ‘Fight Of The Night’ Bonus
Following her win over Marion Reneau by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 71, Holly Holm is still facing high expectations for the hype that she came into the promotion with.
Two fights under her belt while in the UFC, some fans and media members are still not sold on the former boxer (33-2-3). Some believe that she could have been more aggressive in the fight with Renau that ended up going all three rounds. However, when speaking with Holm, she’s happy with the performance even if she gets heat from others about her performance.
“I’m happier with my performance this time than last time, but I’m a little upset with myself for not going forward a little sooner. I think I could’ve stopped her early, Holm said on the MMA Hour. Part of our game plan was to feel her out and see what she was going to be doing. We always assume they’re going to be coming trying to shoot or take me down or clinch to take me down.”
“She had a lot more forward pressure in her past fights. Our plan was to kind of keep her at a kicking range and go when I wanted to. Yes, our game plan panned out perfectly to what we had planned for in the fight.”
Holm went to the standard, typical answer when responding to those who didn’t like her performance. If you haven’t done this before then you will never know what it’s like to fight professionally.
“People are always going to be negative,” she argues. “I honestly feel like the people that write negative things on Twitter, the Internet and all that, are people that don’t do our job. It doesn’t really ever bother me. I don’t really care. I know what was put in. I know what’s behind the scenes. I know what game plan was put together and one thing for me that is a positive thing I take away from this fight is she’s never been dominated like that in a fight before. So, I take that as a positive thing for myself and our hard work paid off.
“There’s a lot of ways to look at it from the outside that a lot of people don’t understand and I really don’t let it bother me because I don’t want to get in there and think, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve really gotta show what I’m worth to all these people who are sitting behind a computer on Twitter.’ I don’t even think about that before a fight. I think about a victory and what I need to do to get a win.”
Holm has an opposite mindset when it comes to fighting. She fights to win, not to entertain. She stated, which is against the mass majority of fighters mindsets that she doesn’t want to win a fight of the night bonus (which includes an extra $50,000 check).
“I tell people all the time I don’t ever want Fight of the Night because that means I took too many shots,” Holm says. “I want Performance of the Night. I want Knockout of the Night or Submission of the Night, but I do not want Fight of the Night because that means you don’t even know who won. That means it’s too close to tell. I want a dominating performance. That is me, personally.”
