Holm makes case for place in history with win
Holly Holm will likely be remembered as on e of the great fighters of the early days of women’s MMA.
Her losses have only ever come to women who have held UFC belts. Her knockout of Ronda Rousey remains arguably the most famous KO in UFC history and when you place her against anybody other than the absolute best, she tends to dominate.
She did it again Saturday night when she thoroughly outclassed the up- and- coming Irene Aldana.
For five rounds, Holm was in complete control, and the win firmly re- established her as a force in the women’s bantamweight division. At 38, she’s coming off two straight wins against elite opposition. Holm’s only losses in the last three-and-ahalf years have come against Amanda Nunes and Cristiane ‘ Cyborg’ Justino, who happen to be considered the two greatest women’s fighters ever. Holm may never get her hands on another UFC belt, but nobody can say she doesn’t deserve another shot if that’s what comes.
Here are five other observations from Saturday’s fights:
1. WHAT’S NEXT
Honestly, the best move for Holm might be to fight another woman who competed on Saturday: former women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie.
The two squared off in an underwhelming fight for the 145 lbs. belt back in early- 2017, with de Randamie earning a unanimous decision victory.
Nobody was cal l ing for an immediate rematch back then, but the two have stayed at the top in the years since and it would be fascinating to see them have a go at 135 lbs. The truth is, there’s not much else for either. They’ve both lost handily to Nunes in the past couple of years. Rematches against the GOAT aren’t in the cards yet.
So run back Holm vs. de Randamie and see what happens. Who knows, a highlight reel knockout or dominant performance might be enough to get people talking about another title shot.
2. ALWAYS ADDING
Speaking of de Randamie, she deserves a lot of credit for the growth she showed in Saturday’s fight against Julianna Pena.
A decorated kick- boxer, nobody was expecting the 36- year- old to be adding weapons to her arsenal at this point in her career, but de Randamie secured a guillotine choke midway through the third round to end the fight and earn her the first submission win of her UFC career.
It was de Randamie’s first fight since losing to Nunes last December and as we noted above, it’s not going to get her an immediate rematch with the champion or anything.
It was, however, a good reminder that you can’t just go writing someone off because they’ve lost to the champion.
De Randamie is no joke and she’s absolutely a contender. That she’s still getting better at this point in her long and decorated career is truly impressive.
3. WORTH SMILING ABOUT
It had been five years since Carlos Condit had won a fight. That was genuinely shocking for fans of one of MMA’S all- time- great savages.
So it felt as if there was almost a collective sigh of relief when it was announced that he’d earned a unanimous decision victory over Court Mcgee. Nothing against Mcgee, who is a great human being and a very good UFC fighter, but something didn’t sit right about Condit ending his career on a six- fight losing streak — and it would have been insane for the UFC to keep him on the roster if he’d lost Saturday.
Sometimes, it’s OK to want good things to happen to good people, and it felt like that’s what the entire MMA community was wishing for when Condit stepped into the octagon.
4. TOUGH LUCK
It’s hard to get too worked up about the judges’ scorecards for Canadian Charles Jourdain’s draw against Joshua Culibao on Saturday. The truth is, it was a close fight.
Personally, I had Culibao winning the first round and Jourdain bouncing back to win the second and third. One way or another, it was a good, hard test for both men.
It’s got to be frustrating for Jourdain, though, who was coming off a decision loss to Andre Fili. It feels like he’s got all the tools to be a really great UFC fighter and at 24- years- old has plenty of time to make the small improvements he needs to win these fights.
The Montrealer is so close and while a draw may be discouraging, it feels like more of a bump in the road than anything else.
5. UP NEXT
The focus shifts to a couple of main events over the next couple of weeks.
First up is a pivotal bantamweight bout between No. 1 contender Marlon Moraes and Cory Sandhagen. It’s not inconceivable that the winner will be in- line to fight the winner of champion Petr Yan’s title defence against Aljamain Sterling.
Next Saturday night’s fight might not get a lot of mainstream interest, but anyone who follows MMA closely knows it should be fascinating.
After that, there’s a fun featherweight matchup between Brian Ortega and the Korean Zombie himself, Chan Sung Jung, and then we’ ll round out this super fun three week run with a blockbuster lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje.
This is about to get fun.