HOLM DEFEATED
Shevchenko dominates bout after Holly floors her in the first round
Shevchenko wins MMA showdown by unanimous decision
CHICAGO — In a hallway deep inside the United Center, far away from the bright lights above the octagon she was just defeated in an hour earlier and with blood still showing on a swollen face, Holly Holm had one thought.
“I’m sorry,” she told a reporter from her hometown newspaper. “Thank you guys so much for coming out to cover this. I wish I could have done better.”
The “Preacher’s Daughter,” Albuquerque’s fight queen, had already faced the postfight media, answering for an overly hesitant performance that led to her second consecutive loss in the UFC, this time to underdog Valentina Shevchenko via unanimous decision (49-46 on all three judges’ scorecards).
Instead of dropping her head and quietly walking back to her locker room alongside her husband, Holm wanted to make sure fans in New Mexico knew that she felt she let them down.
“She’ll be back, better than ever,” her agent, Lenny Fresquez, said.
The optimism is still there, but the result Saturday was undeniable.
Holm (10-2) has lost both
times since her November upset win over Ronda Rousey in Australia that made her the UFC women’s bantamweight champion.
On Saturday, while Holm may have been bigger, stronger and in as good a condition as she’s ever been in, not to mention having the announced crowd of 10,287 chanting “Holly! Holly!” as she entered the octagon, she showed two fatal flaws inside the cage during the nationally broadcast “UFC on Fox” event.
One flaw was not being able to solve the masterful counter-striking shown by a patient Shevchenko (13-2).
“She’s a counterpuncher, and I was respecting that a little too much rather than just doing what I do best,” Holm said.
Every time Holm would unleash a flurry of strikes, Shevchenko countered with a sharp jab or straight right that seemed to frustrate Holm maybe even more than hurt her. But it nonetheless negated the distance advantage Holm held.
Holm’s other flaw was internal.
“I just need to believe in my own abilities a little more and just go forward,” Holm said. “… I know that I’m capable of more than I showed tonight.”
She also admitted that throughout the fight she failed to be as aggressive as she should have been.
“I believe in myself,” Holm said, “but I think that I need to believe in what I learned (in recent fights and training camps) and not be so hesitant with everything that’s coming at me.”
Holm won the fight’s first round, dropping Shevchenko with a 1-2 punching combination that staggered her foe. Later in the round, Shevchenko was able to take Holm down to the canvas, only to have the strength of Holm allow her to get out of danger.
A tight second round went to Shevchenko on the judges’ cards and the third round seemed to be the deciding moment. After again quickly recovering from a Shevchenko takedown, Holm was unable to get out of a second takedown in the round, spending the final two minutes of the round on her back while Shevchenko dropped occasional elbows and opened a cut above Holm’s eye.
“I think that’s one of the moments in the fight that actually makes me really angry with myself,” Holm said. “I should have been working more to get out of there. Obviously she had a good position and she’s very strong there, but I should have been working more to create space to get up. That was one of the moments in the fight where I didn’t do well.”
Heading into the fifth and final round, everyone in the arena and those watching at home and following on social media seemed to know Holm needed not only to win the final round, but finish the fight with a knockout or submission.
Yet, very little seemed to change in her urgency.
“Obviously, I knew that it wasn’t a fight I was dominating,” Holm said. “I knew that. So, yes, I felt like I needed to take
Round 5. But I even hate being in that position. I should have been doing more from the get-go.”
ORANGE CRUSH: Prior to Saturday’s fight, among the social media shout-outs for Holm was one from her favorite sports team.
The Denver Broncos posted on Twitter: “We’ve got your back, @HollyHolm. #UFCChicago” along with a pair of pictures of Holm wearing Denver Broncos T-shirts.
MAIN CARD: The first two fights of Saturday’s four-fight main card didn’t last long. Felice Herrig submitted Kailin Curran with a rear-naked choke in the first round (1:59) in a women’s strawweight fight, and heavyweight Francis Ngannou pummeled Bojan Mihajlovic, bring a stoppage to the fight via TKO in the first round (1:34).
The co-main event, meanwhile, went the distance before Edson Barboza defeated Gilbert Melendez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) in a fight that very much pleased the crowd through the first two of three rounds.