Holm: 'I don't want to go for a participation ribbon' against Rousey
Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm are expected to break the UFC’s all-time attendance record at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, and the pay-per-view is expected to hover somewhere around one million buys.
Much of that has to do with Rousey's burgeoning mainstream star power.
Despite being the only female UFC bantamweight champion in company history, Rousey remains increasingly active as a Hollywood movie starlet, with roles in summer blockbusters "Furious 7," "Entourage," and "The Expendables 3.”
Chances are, even if you aren’t a fight fan, you’ve come across one of Rousey’s commercials, magazine spreads or television appearances.
As Holm readies for the toughest fight of her life, she isn’t exactly sad seeing Rousey take on all this added responsibility.
“I think anybody can lose sight of what their original passion was,” Holm said to Yahoo Sports.
“I don’t know if that’s the case with her – I’m not one to say one way or the other.”
She continued, “I know she has a lot going on, she also takes on a lot – different movie roles and things like that – I feel like I’ll take on what I want to take on, and I can handle a lot.”
Rousey has spent her entire career proving people wrong. When UFC president Dana White said there would never be female fighters in the UFC, Rousey went out and became the biggest star in the company.
When pundits said she wasn’t ready for a championship fight one year after her professional debut, she went out and became a champion.
Heading into UFC 193, Rousey has stated on numerous occasions that she plans on standing with the boxing champion. Rousey even went as far as to predict a knockout of Holm.
“I guess I’ve always looked at fighting as each fighter has a way of getting up for a fight,” said Holm about Rousey’s talk.
“Some get really into it by talking a lot. That doesn’t make me any more scared or nervous.”
Even for a sport as unpredictable as mixed martial arts, Rousey is about as close as a ‘lock’ as you can get.
In her 12 career fights, 11 have ended in the first round. Nine of those were finished via her signature armbar submission.
Currently, Holm – who is also undefeated – sits as a +1000 underdog against Rousey. Despite her stellar pedigree, few, if any, are giving the 34-year-old a legitimate chance at upsetting Rousey.
The fact remains that Rousey has just been too dominant for any challenger to be taken seriously.
And that’s exactly why Holm is dead-set on bringing the fight to the world’s most dangerous fighter. Holm knows that she will have to push the pace and pressure a fighter who has redefined the very idea of ‘pace’ and ‘pressure’ in the UFC.
“I don’t want to be on the defense the whole time,” Holm said.
“Say I make it through the whole fight but I just defended everything she tried to do to me. Is that going to be a win? No. That just means I made it through. And I don’t want to go for a participation ribbon.”
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