Holm kicks it old school against Correia
Knockout strike against Brazilian conjures up memories of Rousey shocker 18 months ago
It’s been more than a year and a half since Holly Holm knocked out Ronda Rousey with a vicious kick to the face. On Saturday, Holm did it again. After two long and tentative rounds, Holm finished her headlining fight against Bethe Correia at UFC Fight Night: Singapore with a headkick that was eerily reminiscent of the shot that put Rousey to sleep back at UFC 193. In an instant, the fight was over. Correia dropped, Holm followed up with one more punch and in the process earned herself a little breathing room with the UFC bosses.
Holm had entered the bout on a threefight losing skid and could easily have been dropped from the roster if that had extended to four. That led to a cautious game plan — and some booing from the Singapore crowd.
“This fight, I know that she could make look messy and I know I heard a lot of boos from the first round but what I wanted to do was make it look as clean as I could,” Holm said. “She can make a messy fight. That was the goal, that was the plan, bait her into something and make a clean shot.”
It was a big win for Holm, who emerged as one of the biggest names in the sport when she shocked the world by knocking out Rousey. Her time at the top was short-lived, though, as she would lose the title to Miesha Tate in her next fight at UFC 196.
Holm would then lose two more, one to the women’s bantamweight division’s No. 1 contender, Valentina Shevchenko, and the next to Germaine de Randamie for the newly established women’s featherweight title.
It appears that de Randamie will be stripped of the belt this summer, though, as reports circulated Saturday that the UFC was planning to hold a women’s 145-pound title fight between Cris (Cyborg) Justino and Megan Anderson at UFC 214.
The two are widely considered to be the best women’s featherweight fighters in the world, and de Randamie has refused to fight Justino because of the Brazilian’s drug-testing history.
After Saturday’s performance, it seems unlikely Holm will feel the need to go back up a weight division and challenge for the featherweight title again.
As long as she’s got those headkicks in her arsenal, she looks perfectly fine at 135 pounds.