Holm hungers for a taste of victory
Albuquerque fighter to take on Correia Saturday in Singapore
Holly Holm has an ache in her gut, she told Fox Sports UFC in an interview this week, and it’s not from eating too much fish head curry.
Singaporean cuisine, in fact, has nothing to do with it. As the Albuquerque MMA fighter prepares for Saturday’s five-round bantamweight fight in that Southeast Asian city-state against Brazil’s Bethe Correia, victory is the only menu item she’s interested in.
Beating Correia won’t get Holm back the UFC bantamweight title she lost to Miesha Tate by fifth-round submission
(rear naked choke) in March 2016 — and there’s the source of that ache.
But it would be a start and a desperately needed one at that, considering the defeats by unanimous decision to Valentina Shevchenko and Germaine de Randamie that followed the loss to Tate.
For Holm at age 35, there’s no time, or fights, to lose.
Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Singapore time. That’s 6 a.m. MDT, so set your alarm clocks. The card is available only on UFC Fight Pass, that organization’s digital streaming entity.
Holm’s career needs a wake-up call, too, after those three consecutive losses. Her second-round TKO of the seemingly invincible champion Ronda Rousey in November 2015, while unforgettable, has diminished in value.
“I’ve never been here in my life,” Holm said during an informal news conference at Jackson-Wink MMA before her departure for Singapore. “I’d never (even) been on a two-fight losing streak, so it’s one of those things that I’m definitely having to overcome in my own mind.”
Holm (10-3) is a heavy favorite against Correia (10-2-1). Despite the similarity of
their records, Holm has fought superior competition. They have three common opponents: Rousey, Raquel Pennington and Marion Reneau. Holm defeated all three; Correia lost to Rousey (by first-round TKO) and Pennington and fought to a draw with Reneau.
The consensus in MMA circles is that Correia has neither the skill nor the style to beat Holm. Shevchenko and de Randamie had success against Holm by beating her at her own counterpunching game. Correia has often been aggressive to a fault — leaving herself open to be countered.
“The Preacher’s Daughter” has never been one to ooze confidence before a fight, and she concedes she’s had to fight off a certain amount of self-doubt that seeped in. She respects Correia’s strength and energy.
“She’s definitely a tough girl,” she said during the news conference at Jackson-Wink. “She’ll just kind of get in there and get to the grind.”
But, she told Fox Sports, “If I fight my fight, I see myself victorious. That’s all there is to it. I don’t see any trash talk in there. That’s just me confident in my abilities.
“Just like I was with other fights, you have to believe you can do it or it’s not going to happen. I do truly believe that I can make this fight mine.”
Mike Winkeljohn, Holm’s longtime coach, was asked earlier this week on mmafighting.com’s “The MMA Hour” if he thought this was a do-or-die fight for his star pupil. Not many UFC fighters have lost four in a row and not been released by the sport’s most powerful organization. Yes, he said. Then, no.
“If she were to lose this fight, it actually could be,” Winkeljohn told host Ariel Helwani. “... (But) she’s not gonna lose, so it’s not do or die. It’s just a do situation, honestly.”
As always, Holm said, she has complete trust in the fight plan that her team — principally Winkeljohn and Greg Jackson — has devised. It’s up to her to execute that plan, something she didn’t do well against Shevchenko and de Randamie.
“Really, it’s all me,” she said. “It’s on me . ... In the end, it all depends on how you feel about yourself when you get in there.
“I know I’m capable of beating these girls, and that’s what I need to do.”
ARLOVSKI: Andrei Arlovski, Holm’s longtime JacksonWink teammate, is one of those rare fighters who has lost four straight UFC fights and not been released. The popular Belarus heavyweight will try not to make it five when he faces Poland’s Marcin Tybura (15-2) on the Singapore card.
Arlovski (25-14) trained in Florida, not at Jackson-Wink, for this fight. But Winkeljohn told Helwani that Arlovski is welcome to return anytime.