Another bout
UFC puts Holly Holm on a June card in Chicago against Australia’s Megan Anderson
In the UFC women’s featherweight division — or, perhaps more properly described, minidivision — all roads lead to champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino.
But that road, said Holly Holm’s agent, is not necessarily the one the Albuquerque MMA fighter will take.
Thursday, the UFC announced that Holm will face Australia’s Megan Anderson in a featherweight (145-pound) fight in Chicago on June 9.
The assumption in MMA circles on Thursday seemed to be that the UFC was setting up a title fight for later this year between Cyborg and the winner of the Holm-Anderson fight.
But Albuquerque’s Lenny Fresquez said Holm is not forsaking the 135-pound bantamweight class, in which she has competed for most of her career.
The UFC lists Holm as the No. 1 contender for the bantamweight title, held by Brazil’s Amanda Nunes.
“I’m sure (the UFC) is trying to keep as many options as they have open to them, as are we,” Fresquez said.
Nunes is scheduled to defend her title against
Raquel Pennington on May 12 in Rio de Janeiro. Holm defeated Pennington by split decision in the Albuquerque fighter’s 2015 UFC debut.
Still, for Holm, it would seem the only reason to take a non-title fight at featherweight would be to put herself in line for a title rematch against Cyborg. Holm lost to the champion by unanimous decision in Las Vegas, Nev., on Dec. 30.
So underpopulated is the women’s featherweight division that the UFC lists only four fighters — Cyborg, Anderson, Tonya Evinger and Yana Kunitskaya — as being part of it. Holm twice has fought for the featherweight title, having lost at 145 pounds to Cyborg and Germaine de Randamie, but otherwise has competed at bantamweight.
Evinger and Kunitskaya, a Russian who trains with Holm at Albuquerque’s Jackson-Wink MMA, already have lost decisively to Cyborg.
In December, Holm became the first fighter to take the champion the entire five-round distance. Though the outcome was not in doubt, Holm won two of the five rounds on two official scorecards.
Anderson (8-2), a former Invicta FC featherweight champion, is a UFC newcomer. She was scheduled to fight Cyborg in July but withdrew for undisclosed personal reasons.
Cyborg last fought on March 3, defeating Kunitskaya via first-round TKO. She presumably would be available, then, to face the Holm-Anderson winner later this year.
Anderson had campaigned for the title shot that went to Kunitskaya in March. But, on Thursday, she told the Australian newspaper Courier-Mail that she’s OK with the current turn of events.
“A lot of people doubt that I’m on (this) level, but I’m ready to show everyone that I am and that I deserve to be here,” she said.
Cyborg, quoted on the MMA website fansided. com, seemed annoyed at the prospect of having to wait for the Holm-Anderson winner. She pointed out that Holm (11-4) has lost four of her last five fights.
“The UFC knows Holly needs a couple wins so we can rematch,” Cyborg said. “Right now her record is terrible. She’s in the negative.”
From all appearances, though, one Holm victory would be enough to put her back in the Octagon with Cyborg.
“How do you manipulate (Holm) back into a rematch?” said analyst Jeff Wagenheim Thursday on mmafighting.com’s The MMA Beat. “Well, one way is to kill off the person (Anderson) who would be getting that fight against Cyborg.”
At 6 feet, Anderson will be by far the tallest opponent Holm (who is 5-8) has faced. She has won four fights by knockout or TKO, two by submission and two by decision.
Since a September 2015 loss by second-round submission (triangle choke) to Cindy Dandois, Anderson has won four straight.