De Randamie repeats offer
Fighter wants rematch with Albuquerque’s Holm
When she’s not training or fighting, Germaine de Randamie works as a police officer in her hometown of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
“I catch the bad guys,” de Randamie said Thursday on a teleconference, five days after her controversial victory over Albuquerque’s Holly Holm for the UFC women’s featherweight title.
During the 38-minute interview, de Randamie made it clear she’s tired of — and hurt by — being labeled the bad guy in the wake of Saturday’s fight in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her narrow, yet unanimous verdict on the official scorecards, disputed by many, was tainted further by the punches she landed after the horn had sounded to end rounds two and three.
Referee Todd Anderson, who has been widely criticized, did not deduct a point from de Randamie on either occasion. Holm’s camp has filed a protest with the New York State Athletic Commission, appealing the outcome on that basis.
After the fight, Holm said she believed the illegal blows landed by de Ramandie were intentional. Thursday, as she had done in the Octagon after the fight, de Randamie emphatically denied that.
“The thing is, it was a fight — heated exchanges, nothing more,” she said. “... Of course I try to hear the bell and stop, but sometimes when you’re in the heat of the moment (and) you’re in a fight, you’re in a fight and you hit somebody.
“It was never, absolutely never intentional. That’s what upsets me so much, people trying to say I’m a dirty fighter. I’m not a dirty fighter.”
Holm said after the fight that she’d lost respect for de Ramandie because of the late punches. Thursday, de Ramandie said she has the utmost respect for Holm — repeating her offer, originally made Monday on her Facebook page, to give the Albuquerquean a rematch.
Toward that objective, there are two obstacles: fighter Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino, and de Randamie’s injured hand.
In the Octagon after the fight, de Randamie said she’d torn ligaments in her hand in a previous fight and likely would need surgery. Thursday, she said she hadn’t had time to see a doctor since the fight and couldn’t provide a timeline as to when she might be ready to fight again. It could be after the surgery or before, she said, provided doctors could tell her she wouldn’t risk permanent damage by doing so.
“I don’t want to go against the will of the doctors,” she said.
De Randamie said she injured the hand during her TKO victory over Larissa Pacheco in March 2015. The hand bothered her during her training for Holm, she said. She did not say it bothered her in the Holm fight, during which she threw effective punches with either hand.
Several times during the teleconference, de Randamie fielded questions about Justino. The new UFC women’s featherweight division was in essence created for “Cyborg,” who has been unable or unwilling to make the 135-pound bantamweight limit.
Holm and de Ramandie wound up fighting for the new title because Justino and the UFC couldn’t come to financial terms. Then, Justino was suspended temporarily after testing positive for a diuretic listed as a banned substance by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Both Justino and UFC President Dana White are confident she’ll be granted a therapeutic use exemption, meaning Justino would avoid a year’s suspension and be available to fight this summer.
Thursday, de Randamie said she’ll take what comes — but made it clear a rematch with Holm would be her preference.
“I really don’t have an answer for that,” she said. “We really have to see how everything plays out with Holly and with the hand injury and with Cyborg.”
Saturday, Holm said that, illegal blows or no, she believed she should have gotten the decision. Thursday — no surprise here — de Ramandie disagreed. All three judges scored it 48-47 for the Utrecht policewoman.
“I felt I won the fight,” she said. “I think I did more damage. I was the dominant fighter.
“But I understand how (Holm) feels. She’s not happy about it, and that’s why I made the offer to her (for the rematch).”
Nor is de Ramandie upset, nor concerned, about the appeal Holm’s camp has filed with the New York commission.
“If (Holm) feels that way, there’s nothing much I can say about it,” she said. “Everyone’s entitled to feel however they want to feel, and I respect everybody’s opinion, I really do.
“I believe justice will serve and the athletic commission will make the right decision.”
De Ramandie, though, would prefer a resolution made not on paper but in the Octagon.
Rather than protest, she said, “(Holm) should simply accept the offer I put out to rematch her.”