Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm was granted her request to be released from the UFC this week and the 43-year-old veteran has now explained what motivated her to leave the promotion.
“It’s been already, my gosh, eight months since my last fight, or something like that, seven or eight months,” Holm said on the Ariel Helwani Show. “And I know that I’m not going to fight forever but I still want a couple of more.
“I had been in a little bit of talk just trying to see if anything would happen. And I did want to be able to dance in the UFC octagon one more time, but it just didn’t seem like it was something that was going to be promised.
“I did have two fights left on the contract, but it’s not always promised. I didn’t want to wait around forever either, so I wanted to see what other options there are.”
Reading between the lines it seems that the UFC may well have been reluctant to give Holm another fight after her submission loss to Kayla Harrison in April of last year.
After that fight, Dana White told reporters that he thought Holm should retire, which led to an angry response from ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’, who admitted to being “p*ssed off” at his comment.
Many months later the fact that Holm still didn’t have a fight in the Octagon booked suggests that White’s opinion hasn’t changed, but she claims she isn’t holding any grudges as she now parts ways with the promotion that served as her home for the past decade.
“There’s no negative thoughts. There’s no hate or anything like that. I’m super thankful for my entire journey with the UFC and all the opportunities that they’ve given me and being able to fight for a title. I’m super thankful for the journey and I’m not done,” Holm said.
“I know I still have a couple of fights left in me and I want to see what doors open up. Maybe I go to boxing.”
