Holly Holm’s Team Wants Six Figures To Fight Ronda Rousey
Former multi-time women’s boxing champion Holly Holm has made a successful transition in to MMA, sitting with a respectable 6-0 record. Her most recent bout was a decision win over Angela Hayes at Friday’s Fresquez Productions: Havoc in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a show put on by Holm’s manager Larry Fresquez.
Holm got the win but it was her first fight that she didn’t end via knockout. Hayes isn’t the most highly ranked women’s fighter, but there are certainly many in the UFC that would provide stiff tests for Holm.
Fresquez believes that the UFC is a goal for Holm, but the terms would have to be right. He went as far as to say that he wants six figures for Holm to fight UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey:
“She’s a special fighter, and people got to understand that from the boxing world. I’ve had conversations with the UFC, with (UFC women’s matchmaker) Sean Shelby – very nice guy. We’re just on different pages with the UFC. There’s no doubt we want we want to go to the UFC, at the right time. But right now the UFC’s in a different league. The UFC doesn’t have but maybe five girls that could really give Holly competition. So we’re just waiting for the UFC to give Holly the right opportunity, because we want a title fight. We want to fight the best UFC fighter.”
“We’re looking for six figures. And there’s not too many fighters that make six figures. Right now Holly earns probably more than 80% of the male fighters in the UFC, and probably earns more than 98 of the female fighters. We’d like to work with them, I don’t want to be disrespectful to the UFC. But they also have to understand. They’ve bought Strikeforce, they’ve bought all these different ones. Holly’s a franchise, as you can see. She’s not just your normal fighter. She’s more of a franchise, a key marquee. And to be honest with you, I think she’d represent the face of the UFC better than Ronda Rousey.”
“She’s a classy person, not that Ronda’s not a classy person.” – via Sherdog.com
Wow. That’s quite a set of demands for a relatively green MMA fighter who just beat someone with a .500 record. Holm may bring an impressive 33-2-3 boxing record to the table, but all that can be thrown out the window inside the Octagon.
There are several questions that remain about Holm’s ground game, something that would be easily exploited against Rousey in the first round. If the top ranked women’s bantamweights in the world don’t have an answer for “Rowdy’s” world class judo skills, will a girl who has spent most of her life in boxing?
I’d have to say no. Holm isn’t even fighting in a smaller promotion like Invicta FC; she’s fighting in a show set up by her manager. And they want her to be the “face of the UFC?”
That’s laughable, and something you simply aren’t going to get Dana White to agree to. Rightfully so, because while Holm may be popular, she has a long, long way to go before she can contend with any of the top fighters in the UFC, let alone the dominant champion.
