Holly Holm Says She Didn’t Break Ronda Rousey

Holly Holm will be facing Germaine De Randamie in the main event of UFC 208, where the winner will become the first ever UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion.

Holm’s longtime coach, Mike Winklejohn, feels that Holm broke former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey when the two fought at UFC 193, something Holm disagrees with.

“Here’s what I think about that, and a lot of people have asked me about that ever since she had that fight with Nunes,” Holm said at a UFC 208 conference call. “Coming off of a knockout, [whether it’s] Ronda or anybody else — I’m not saying it’s just her, it’s just fighters — you come off of a knockout it is very, very hard mentally and emotionally. You second-guess yourself. I remember when I got knocked out, every time I would spar for the first two weeks, every time I would get hit, I would be like, am I OK? Yeah, I think I’m OK. Am I OK? Yeah, I think I’m okay. You really second guess yourself a lot.”

UFC President Dana White also recently stated that he feels Rousey is going to retire, but Holm doesn’t see it that way either.

“I’m one of those that, I’m a firm believer in the fact that once a fighter, always a fighter,” Holm said. “She might not ever want to fight again. She might not fight for two years, and then she might say, ‘You know what? I’m really egging for it. I want to get back in there, I really want to fight. I’ve had enough of this regular life business.’ You know? I think that right now, I think that’s just an honest opinion, I bet she just kind of feels like you know what, maybe I’m going to focus on other things right now. Going from a big high to a big low, I have a lot of respect for her. I’ve never said any different. I hope she’s happy, and I hope she does what she wants to do, whether that be fighting, whether that be going to focus on other things. All I’m going to say is any fighter young enough, they might come back for another fight. You never know.”

UFC 208 takes place on Saturday, February 11 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Holly Holm and Germaine De Randamie headlining.