Tuesday 26 July 2016 06:10, UK
Holly Holm will always be the proud owner of the UFC’s most shocking moment but has spectacularly failed to live up to her conquering of Ronda Rousey. Sky Sports question why…
Holm has experienced a virtually unrivalled 12 months of highs and lows inside the Octagon, evolving from an inexperienced contender into a champion who toppled an apparently unbeatable title-holder. But she lost the belt herself as quickly as it was stunningly ripped from Rousey's waist and was handed a second consecutive defeat last weekend.
Entering her biggest moment last November in Australia, Holm was largely fancied to be the latest lamb to the slaughter of the UFC's inaugural female champion who had chewed up three previous opponents in a combined 64 seconds. There wasn't much to suggest Rousey would struggle with her latest foe.
The masterclass in sticking-and-moving that Holm produced, culminating in a head kick knockout, is enough to certify her place in the sport's chronicles forevermore, regardless of whatever followed. Looking back, that might be as good as it gets.
Two consecutive defeats - dropping the world title to Miesha Tate in March followed by losing a unanimous decision to Valentina Shevchenko last weekend - have ended her unbeaten record in humbling fashion.
Holm's success in a previous career as a professional boxer was feted after she out-punched Rousey last year so her vulnerabilities were stark when stood toe-to-toe with Shevchenko. The counter-striking that superbly flummoxed Rousey didn't work when Shevchenko refused to be suckered in, and Holm struggled when forced to initiate.
The truth about Holm's boxing credentials is that they are difficult to analyse. She was recognised as a WBA champion and was twice Ring Magazine's female fighter of the year, but that was a decade ago. Upon closer inspection, only one of her 38 fights was held outside of her home state, New Mexico, and her knockout ratio was less than favourable (just nine of 33 wins).
But women's fighting remains a new, chaotic world three years on from its UFC inauguration. Female boxing, in the early-2000s when Holm first strapped on gloves, was a Wild West so perhaps she scarcely had the opportunity to travel further afield to demonstrate her talent.
The women's division in the UFC had law and order, with Rousey-mania in full swing, until Holm blew it all apart last year. Sure, Holm's results have been disastrous since but Tate, who beat her for the belt, also lost her first defence to Amanda Nunes and has two defeats to Rousey on her record. Rousey is still nowhere to be seen so, in the grand scheme of things, is Holm's fall from grace so bad?
The American is approaching her 35th birthday and looked her age against Shevchenko. But in a women's division that has become harder and harder to predict in the past year, she should not be written off yet.
Holm is a fighting pioneer as the first athlete of either gender to claim world championships in boxing and MMA. She will probably never scale the heights of her Rousey knockout, a moment that will far out-live her career, but that's not bad for a girl who was fighting before it became fashionable.
