Life as champ ‘a little weird’ for Holm
Beating Rousey ended quiet life that she prefers
Nicknames in the world of mixed martial arts range from amusing to ridiculous, but none is rooted in reality quite as much as that of Holly Holm.
Holm is known as “The Preacher’s Daughter” for one reason: her father, Roger, delivers weekly sermons at Edgewood Church of Christ in Tijeras, N.M.
Such matters of faith would appear to be at odds with the often-brutal nature of the fight game, with the seminal moment of Holm’s career being a crunching kick to the side of Ronda Rousey’s face in November.
“I’m OK with it,” Roger Holm told USA TODAY Sports in a tele- phone interview. “Of course it is a hard sport, where part of the game is to defeat the other person physically. I can see why people think it is brutal. I can see why some people don’t like it.
“But I have come to understand it as an art form, and for Holly it is a chance to spread a positive message.”
Holm is a soft-spoken and calm-natured 34-year-old who prefers crafts and do-it-yourself home projects to the television appearances and promotional engagements that have been foisted upon her since she ripped the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight belt away from Rousey at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
She enjoys the quiet life in Albuquerque but acknowledges it has become somewhat less quiet in recent times. In the past, despite being a world boxing champion, Holm was left in relative peace in the town where she shares a home with husband Jeff Kirkpatrick.
“It is hard, because the more you get known and the more successful you get, the more people want a piece of you,” Roger Holm said. “There is not a lot of privacy anymore. People go up and talk to her in the grocery store, in restaurants, in Target, on the street.”
Holm agrees. Her friendly nature has rarely wavered, but she says it has been a little bit harder to pull off since her fame took off.
“It has definitely changed since I beat Ronda,” Holm said. “It is hard to be patient with people sometimes, but it is important that I don’t lose my patience and understand that they mean well. But when people want to take a photo with me in the toilet, that is a little weird.”
Fighting Miesha Tate (17-5) is seen as a risk for Holm. She could hardly have chosen a more challenging rival to follow the big win in Australia, essentially risking what likely will be a huge payday for the rematch against Rousey.
Timing quickly emerged as an issue.
As much as Holm and the UFC hierarchy would have liked the rematch at UFC 200 in the summer, Rousey’s commitments and recovery mean she is unlikely to participate again before November.
“I didn’t want to wait and wait,” Holm said. “I didn’t want it to be another three months and then another and suddenly I am not fighting again for a year.”
Yet just as Rousey was not as invincible as everyone thought before Holm took her crown, neither is Holm unbeatable. Her battle with Tate is likely to be very different from her previous one, in which Rousey’s poor tactical decision-making allowed Holm to land repeated blows on her face.
At Thursday’s news event, Holm and Tate were effectively bystanders, overshadowed by loud and crass exchanges between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.
“All the events leading up to it, she doesn’t really like that,” Roger Holm said soon after the final bits of profanity came from the male protagonists. “It is all part of the game.”
If she wins Saturday, big things might be ahead for Holm, who thought she would be out of fighting long before now but is at the peak of her powers in her mid-30s.
“There has been a lot going on in my life since I beat Ronda,” she said. “But this is what gets the best out of me, the chance to fight and get away from it all. I am ready, readier than ever.”