USA TODAY International Edition
Atypical fighter
MMA star Ronda Rousey calls Saturday’s foe, Holly Holm, nice, and it’s tough to argue,
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA If Ronda Rousey is the queen of mean, with the kind of bristling attitude befitting mixed martial arts’ most lauded inflicter of pain, what, then, is her latest opponent Holly Holm?
“She is a sweet girl,” said Rousey, giving up on her routine of verbally assaulting impending foes because of, in this case, a severe lack of ammunition. “She’s nice.”
If simmering antipathy is one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most common sources of motivational fuel, Holm gives you nothing to work with. The former boxing world champion, 34, is an immensely likable woman who has somehow landed in the middle of the boisterous world of MMA’s premier organization.
Holm will take on Rousey at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium in the main event of UFC 193 on Saturday. She is known as “The Preacher’s Daughter” because that is exactly what she is; her father, Roger, is a practicing minister. She takes her Bible to Starbucks. She has a Realtor’s license. And she gets most excited during an interview when discussing her latest homemade craft projects, such as sewing and woodworking and making cute monogrammed coasters that are used as birthday or wedding gifts.
“I love to do crafts,” Holm told USA TODAY Sports. “People think of Popsicle sticks; there is a lot more detail than that. They are cool crafts.”
Holm is soft- spoken, unfailingly polite and entirely genuine. So how then, does she reconcile her placid nature with the primal aggression needed in her sport, in which causing serious bodily damage is the appropriate route to success?
“A fight is nothing out of an ill will or an evil heart,” Holm said. “It is just two people chasing a dream. You can’t be champion without somebody else shooting for the same thing.
“There is a high amount of respect and love for everybody I get in there with. I feel like I can even relate to them a little more than somebody else because I feel we have similar passions and goals in life. I have all these great things in life, but I think fighting is a beautiful thing, too. It is somebody’s full passion, and it is everything they put into it. It is a chess match.”
Holm’s assessment of MMA is about as poetic a description of what goes on inside the UFC cage as you are likely to find. If history is an indicator, the arena canvas will be bloodstained by the time the two chief protagonists square off this weekend. The crowd might be baying for more to be spilled. Some come to marvel at the technical mastery of outstanding athletes with extraordinary all- around combat skills. Others, let’s face it, come to see someone get hurt.
Some fighters love to talk about the pain and humiliation they want to deliver. At a Melbourne media event featuring several of UFC’s top stars a few months back, Holm sat onstage next to Conor McGregor as the flamboyant Irish featherweight let fly a stream of profanities so numerous that if they’d been bleeped out it would have sounded like somebody had just flatlined. McGregor followed that by speculating about the sexual habits of future opponent Jose Aldo and his wife’s choice of underwear.
At that moment, Holm’s hometown of Albuquerque seemed a long way away.
The Duke City is where Holm lives in peace with Jeff Kirkpatrick, her husband of three years. It is where she has trained, with coaches Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn, for her bout against Rousey, and it’s where she fought most of her boxing world title fights, compiling a 33- 2- 3 record.
“Albuquerque is where I can get away from the chaos,” Holm said. “I don’t mind flying everywhere, seeing new things, but home is where my mind is most clear and where I give myself the best chance to be successful through thorough preparation.”
While Rousey has become a global star, Holm’s support base is much more localized, and she is fine with that.
“We love Holly here because she has shown that while she is one of the best in the world as a fighter, she is even better than that as a person,” Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry said. “She is a role model, and she is someone that we root for with excitement and passion. On fight night you will see events and parties, Holly’s name painted in people’s car windows and just this outpouring of support for her.”
Will it matter? Rousey a former Olympic judo bronze medalist, has been indestructible in the UFC, smashing her way through the women’s bantamweight division with such totality that only Miesha Tate has been able to survive a full round or more.
Holm knows she is the underdog, and she really doesn’t care. She has belief in her own ability, that her boxing skills give her an edge none of Rousey’s past opponents have had, and she thinks her world title experience in the ring will prevent her from freezing on the big stage.
“I am not coming to try to last longer than Ronda’s other opponents,” Holm said. “I am coming to win. ( People) think I am not going to do it. I am going to try to prove you ( all) wrong.”
It was said without a growl or a sneer. But, like everything else that comes out of Holm’s mouth, she means it wholeheartedly. Holm is probably the nicest opponent Rousey has ever faced. Saturday, she will try to show she is also the nastiest.