Holm gunning to put herself back on the map

Holly Holm will look to put herself back on the map in the UFC women’s bantamweight division when she faces Ketlen Vieira in the main event of a Fight Night at the APEX Facility in Las Vegas on Sunday, 22 May.

Holm (14-5, 8 KO) fought for the bantamweight belt in July 2019, suffering a first-round TKO to Amanda Nunes, and since then she has beaten both Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana by unanimous decision (over three and five rounds respectively) - though the last of those came way back in October 2020.

The ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ has struggled against injuries and recovery from surgery, even having to rebuff questions as to whether she has retired as an MMA fighter.

“I had to have surgery. It was a piece of bone fragment floating around up there. They had to clean up a few things but I did have to have surgery. But we’re up and we’re cranking and we’re pushing forward,” said the 40-year-old American.

“I’m definitely super frustrated, especially when people are like ‘are you retired?’ I’m like no! Not retired! But I can see them maybe thinking that because they haven’t seen me fight. I want to show them what I’ve got and especially because my last fight, I got to show even more of my game from what had been seen before. I get excited cause I want to show more and show more and I keep running into these barriers. It’s definitely frustrating.

“I feel myself getting anxiety sometimes cause it’s like you feel like you want to go and you can. You feel like you’ve got to go and you want to go and you can’t. Then you start overthinking things. I’ve learned I just have to take it day-by-day or I’m going to worry myself doing nothing. Not even moving forward. I always want to move forward so I try to stay as positive as I can.”

Vieira (12-2, 2 KO) was last in the Octagon in November of last year, defeating Miesha Tate via unanimous decision over five rounds.

The 30-year-old Brazilian says that facing Holm gets her excited: “I’m motivated by big challenges and she’s a big challenge,” said Vieira.

“I’m very happy and honored by this opportunity. A girl who left Manaus – born in the countryside, the daughter of traditional riverbank dwellers – and today I’m in the world’s biggest event, fighting in the main event? It’s a dream come true, especially fighting against an athlete who is a pioneer in MMA.”

The winner of this main event is likely to get a shot at facing Julianna Pena, the current women’s bantamweight title holder.