Holly Holm
UFC women’s bantamweight contender Holly Holm has yet to make her octagon debut, however she has already amassed an extremely impressive pedigree of accomplishments. Holm is a former professional boxer and kickboxer, during her boxing career she became an 18-time world champion in three separate weight classes. She began her professional MMA career in 2011 and at 33 years old is a little late to the game. However woman’s MMA is still in it’s infancy and Holm is by far the most experienced and accomplished pure striker in the woman’s bantamweight division.
She is already 7-0 in MMA and has recently signed a five fight deal with the UFC. Of her seven pro MMA bouts to date she has finished six, via varied strikes such as head kicks, leg kicks and knees. She has the killer instinct to pounce for the finish and utilises all the tools of the stand-up trade to get it done.
Holly was highly sought after by the UFC as they looked for anyone who might be able to challenge Ronda Rousey. She was expected to make her UFC debut late last year against Raquel Pennington but had to pull out due to injury. The bout has been rescheduled for UFC 184 on February 28th. It is rather apt that the fight has now become the co-main event to Ronda Rousey’s next title defence. Holm is expected to run through Pennington and could challenge bantamweight queen Rousey later in 2015. Although there is no evidence to suggest that Holm will be able to defend against Rousey’s expert judo, she will undoubtedly be the best striker Ronda has ever shared the octagon with.
