Weighty decision
Holly Holm is happy to be fighting in a higher weight class
Making weight, Holly Holm says, can be a fight unto itself.
On Feb. 11, thanks to the UFC’s recent introduction of a women’s 145-pound division, Holm’s only opponent will be Germaine De Randamie — not the dreaded weight cut.
All five of the Albuquerquean’s previous UFC events, and most of her previous seven MMA fights, have been contested at the 135-pound bantamweight limit. During her 11-year professional boxing career (200213), Holm weighed in at as little as 135 pounds just once. More often, she fought at 140 or 147,
If Holm has had to strain to make 135 as an MMA fighter, she’s said little about it. But on Tuesday, at a news conference held at Isleta Resort & Casino, Holm said she would not miss having to cut the weight.
“I can make 135, (but) it’s definitely something I have to be very disciplined about to get there,” she said. “But right now, I could literally make weight tonight if I had to.
“So that’s been kind of a less stressful thing, and I’ve been able to not really worry about it . ... I’ve just kind of been enjoying my training, and I’ve been eating a lot.”
Holm (10-2), the former UFC 135-pound champion, and De Randamie (6-3) will fight for the inaugural featherweight title belt as the main event of UFC 208 at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. De Randamie, like Holm, has been competing at 135.
But De Randamie was a big 135-pounder, standing 5-foot-9. Holm, at 5-8, will be fighting someone taller for the first time in her MMA career.
“This is definitely a different feel for me,” Holm said. “... It’s a good thing I have so many training partners (at Albuquerque’s Jackson Wink MMA), so we’re throwing in the taller people and we’re gonna get a good feel for it.”
Holm’s primary coaches, Mike Winkeljohn and Greg Jackson, already have a feel for what De Randamie is likely to do on Feb. 11.
In July 2013, the Dutch fighter defeated Julie Kedzie — then a Jackson-Wink fighter — by split decision.
“They gave (the decision) to De Randamie, but a lot of people thought it should have gone the other way,” Holm said. “... We’re definitely familiar with (De Randamie). We had a (fight plan) for her already.”
Holm’s and Kedzie’s style are not identical, nor will be the plan Jackson and Winkeljohn formulate for Holm in preparing for De Randamie.
Whatever that plan may involve, Holm said, following it — something she failed to do in her July 2016 loss to Valentina Shevchenko — is paramount.
Tuesday, Holm was asked if her preparation for De Randamie involved cleaning up any technical flaws that cost her in the Shevchenko fight. No, she said. “If I would have fought (Shevchenko) with the game plan that we planned, it would have been a different fight,” Holm said. “... I didn’t perform that night. I wasn’t very focused.
“The mental part of a fight is the biggest part of it all. Conditioning is next, and skills last. You have to have the skills because you’re fighting the best in the world, but it’s crazy how much of a percentage, really, is the mental part of it.”
After the back-to-back losses to Miesha Tate and Valentina Shevchenko that followed her stunning upset victory over Ronda Rousey in November 2015, Holm, 35, does not lack for motivation.
“I’ve never had two losses in a row in my life (before),” she said. “... I still feel like I have a lot of good things to come in my career.
“I just hit a lull, I learned from those mistakes and I just want to go forward.”