Holly Holm is intrigued by a potential boxing match with Katie Taylor.
This past week, Taylor faced Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden in a bout billed as the biggest female boxing bout of all-time, and the fight more than delivered, with the two women engaging in a back-and-forth battle for 10 rounds. In the end, Taylor won a split decision. And Holm has no qualms with the outcome.
” “I will tell you, they got out and they saw that a lot people were looking and knew they had a big chance, the main event at Madison Square Garden. So they came to fight,” Holm said to Ariel Helwani, on The MMA Hour .. It’s inspiring to see the passion these women fight and all of their hard work. It was a fun fight to watch. Definitely a close fight, which is good.
” You don’t want this long-awaited fight to end with only one person being schooled. It would probably be split, I thought. It was going to be close, and a fight that would go back-and-forth. They’re both really good boxers. They just began swinging, slugging a little towards the end. It’s almost like they were just swinging, just slugging, towards the end.
” I feel that it was the way the judging went. A split,” Holm said. Taylor was moving more and landing better, particularly in the latter rounds. It was difficult to discern the difference in their last round because they were both just moving. It could have been either way, but I would not argue it. It would have been split decision to Taylor, or to Serrano. I feel it was close. A lot of times it depends on which eyes are watching it. Who is pushing forward, who is landing shots, how many compared to how many are power. A fight such as this can be viewed in many different ways. .”
was full of action.
Holm is a long-standing fan of sweet science. Holm, a multiple-time World Champion in three weight categories was named twice Fighter of the Year by and is widely considered to be one of the most outstanding female boxers. Holm is even set to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame later in 2022. She left boxing in 2013 to pursue MMA full-time and has had great success, winning the UFC bantamweight title in 2015. But after watching Taylor and Serrano battle it out on Saturday, Holm admits the historic fight got some of her old juices flowing again.
“We had talked, Taylor and myself, before I wound up going to MMA. We had talked about a possible fight there,” Holm said. “I always want to do something that hasn’t been done. I always get super intrigued by things, and I fought at three weight divisions, ’40, ’47, and ’54, and I never got to fight at ’35. But I’ve done most of my MMA career at ’35, and that’s what their fight was at. So it makes me like, ‘I want to go back in and show what I can do at a whole different weight class.’ I never even fought at that weight class when I was in boxing and I think I’m bigger and stronger than a lot of the 135ers, and I still have conditioning and I still have a lot of that ring experience behind me.”
But before Holm gets ahead of herself, she still has things to attend to in the MMA world. The 40-year-old former UFC champion is set to face Ketlen Vieira in the main event of UFC Vegas 55 on May 21 in Las Vegas, and she says her first priority is still recapturing UFC gold. However, “The Preacher’s Daughter” did allow that if she returns to the squared circle, Katie Taylor is the fight she would want.
“It does intrigue me. Holm stated that it intrigues her a lot. To the point that I thought I would never be able to box again. There’s been a lot of people that have been able to transition back and forth, but nobody’s really been able to do it successfully, and that drives me. It’s a way for me to prove to people that I could transition from boxing to MMA. But I also know I can go back. It does get me excited.”
With Holm nearing the end of her current UFC contract, a fight with Taylor down the road is a legitimate possibility, especially as Taylor’s promoter Eddie Hearn has already mentioned Holm as a possible future opponent. But for Holm, she would prefer to be able to win back the UFC title first, then have a superfight with Taylor.
” What gets me excited? If I could have one [belt] at each shoulder,” Holm stated. “Do it all.”
