Det har varit ett tufft år för den forne bantamviktsmästarinnan Holly Holm, som nu står med två raka förluster mot Miesha Tate och Valentina Shevchenko efter storvinsten mot Ronda Rousey för snart ett år sedan.
Hon fick tidigare mycket kritik för att vilja gå match istället för att vänta på en eventuell returmatch mot Rousey, vilket hon nu svarar på i en intervju med Ariel Helwani.
Det här berättade Holm via ’The MMA Hour’:
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It is annoying because a lot of people that do that, I don’t think they ever listen to all these others kind of interviews or articles or anything that come out for me. I like to fight. I don’t know why people think that I’m taking fights for money. It drives me crazy. I wanted to fight because I wanted to get in there and fight, it had nothing to do if I should have waited for this money fight or that money fight. It’s not why I fight.
And, so whatever people say I guess is their own opinion that has nothing to do with what I shoot for or what my goals are. I always tell myself I’m never going to fight for money, only for passion. And I want to stay true to that. And that’s what I was doing, is fighting because I wanted to fight. That’s it.
Rousey kommer nu att möta Amanda Nunes för att försöka ta tillbaka bältet, men Holm är inte bitter för det.
You know, honestly, I don’t feel like I’m in a spot to say what I want. I didn’t have good performances in my last two fights, so why should I sit here and walk around and say what I deserve. I never done that in my career anyway. I’m curious to watch the fight and see how it turns out, but I’m not by any means pissed off about it or anything. I’ll just have to…I just want to keep training and win whatever fight might come my way, and that’s it.
Holm är säker på att hon kommer att kunna avslöja mer om sin nästa match under de närmaste veckorna, efter att hon får klartecken att träna från sin läkare. Hon har dock inte någon speciell motståndare i åtanke.
I’m sure we’ll schedule something in the next few weeks. I know [the UFC] probably don’t want to set something 100 percent until I’m 100 percent released to train. I think we’re getting close to figuring that out, but definitely no specific answer right now.
I just want to fight, and I want to win. That’s my goal. That’s really as simple as I want to think. What fight it is, it really doesn’t matter to me. I want to win just as badly whether it’s on a big card or not. I want to win even if it’s not on TV. Even in practice, I still want to punch my teammates more than they hit me. That’s the name of the game. I am just focused on a victory, and that’s it.
