Holly Holm is in a weird position. She didn’t get the rematch against Miesha Tate for a chance to reclaim her bantamweight title, so now she’s in limbo — despite being a popular draw with fans. She’s headlining UFC on FOX on July 23rd but that’s filler until something else comes along. At 34 years old, Holm needs a big fight right now, something that will have title implications immediately and keep the ever-more-popular UFC women’s division moving while Ronda Rousey considers her career. Maybe Cat Zingano? If not Cat, Holm has Cris Cyborg waiting at 140 pounds, and that would be one hell of a fight.
Holm told 120 Sports that she’s willing to move up to 140 in order to make the Cyborg fight happen. Cyborg, the Invicta featherweight champ and former Strikeforce featherweight champ, said she won’t be able to make 135, but would gladly fight catchweight. Holm professionally boxed as high as 152 pounds, so this shouldn’t be an issue:
“I’m not even stuck on the 135 compared to the 140 stuff. It’s not really a big thing for me.”
“In boxing, I fought in three weight classes. I’m not gonna say that I’m against going at 140. I actually think Cyborg might be able to do 135. Who knows? But that’s definitely something that could be an option for the future. I’m actually really happy for her victory. I really like Cyborg. I think she’s a great gal.”
Holm, Cyborg and Miesha Tate all trained together ahead of Holm’s fight against Ronda Rousey, and the three even collaborated on a low-budget movie. It’s a strange world at the top of women’s MMA. Sure, they all might be friends but they’ll still fight.
We know that Holly Holm has already fought in the biggest WMMA fight of all time (gate/PPV buys) against Ronda Rousey, but even if this had a smaller crowd and less PPV buys, it would still be the biggest and most important WMMA fight to date — even without a belt on the line. Miesha Tate may have gotten the best of Holm, but no one can deny Holms’ run in the sport, and she was the one to dethrone Ronda Rousey after all. Going by Highlander, or a general dark fantasy ruleset, you could say that Holm has to be the one to fight Cyborg — especially after years of talk between Cyborg and Rousey.
Like the business card scene in American Psycho, if Holly Holm agreed to this fight at 140 pounds, she would officially have a watermark on her badass card. This is probably a top three fight to make in all of MMA.
(Via MMA Fighting)