Retirement Not in the Immediate Future for Former UFC Champ Holly Holm

When Holly Holm sent Ronda Rousey crashing to the canvas at UFC 193 back in November 2015 in Sydney, Australia, the former boxing world champion was on top of the world.

Not many people expected her to win that fight. Rousey had started knocking out her opponents and seemed to be getting more dominant with each bout. Yet against all the odds, Holm shut down the champion with laser-like punches and finished her off with an earth shuddering head kick. After the matchup, many believed Holm would be the champion in the division for the foreseeable future. At the time, she was undefeated in mixed martial arts (10-0) and had taken out the No. 1 pound-for-pound female fighter in the world.

Now at 36 years of age, “The Preacher’s Daughter” may be contemplating retirement. After all, she’s achieved more in combat sports than most could dream of. She has won boxing world titles in three different weight divisions and has held titles in two MMA promotions after capturing the inaugural Legacy Fighting Championship women's bantamweight title in April 2014 and the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight title in 2015.

However, since that fateful night back in 2015, she is 1-4 inside the Octagon. Her sole win coming via a performance of the night knockout of Bethe Correia last year. Her last outing saw her face off against who many believe is the greatest female fighter of all time in Cristiane Justino. In that fight, Holm arguably gave Cyborg her toughest fight by going five rounds with the Brazilian before losing via unanimous decision.

Holm recently appeared on “The MMA Hour” and spoke about how she still has the motivation to compete at the highest level and will continue to do so (via MMAMania.com):

“A lot of people have been asking me, ‘You had four out of five losses, so you know, you are 36, are you going to retire now?’ I still want to fight, and that’s the bottom line. There are people who tell me I’m the only one who took her (Cyborg) that far, and others telling me to retire. I’m like, ‘Why would I want to retire when I just gave her the toughest fight?’ You know what I mean? And in a weight class that’s a heavier weight class that I usually fight in, against the biggest person. I was still the one to give her the toughest fight, so I don’t really understand the retirement questions. Maybe it’s just because of the four of five has gone. I don’t see it that way. I am still competitive and have the capability and I still want to do it.”