Holly Holm wants ‘six figures’ to fight with Ronda Rousey

Holly Holm’s manager and promoter Lenny Fresquez stood up with Sherdog, and discussed what their team wants with the UFC. Holm, 32, is wildy popular in her home state of New Mexico, and has won women’s boxing world title 18 times. She is 6-0 in MMA, the same record UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey had when she entered the UFC.

Holm began MMA only in 2011; the bulk of her career in combat sports has been in boxing. However, Holm’s trainer in boxing is Mike Winkeljohn, one half of the Jackson/Winklejohn MMA that so dominates MMA, so the transition was seamless. A showdown between the champion former boxer and the champion former judoka could be compelling indeed.

Fresquez began by detailing his history with Holm.

“Holly started her career about ten years ago with me,” said Fresquez. “She lost her first fight with me – it was a technical knockout… But I’ve always stood behind my fighters. Holly’s just the one that took every advantage of the opportunities that we’ve laid in front of her.”

“We developed her in boxing, first ten fights. Then after her first ten fights, we pretty much put her with anybody that would fight her. And as you know, she’s fought the who’s who of women’s boxing. And we’re just trying to do the same thing in MMA.

“She’s a special fighter, and people got to understand that from the boxing world. I’ve had conversations with the UFC, with (UFC women’s matchmaker) Sean Shelby – very nice guy. We’re just on different pages with the UFC. There’s no doubt we want we want to go to the UFC, at the right time. But right now the UFC’s in a different league. The UFC doesn’t have but maybe five girls that could really give Holly competition.

“Se we’re just waiting for the UFC to give Holly the right opportunity, because we want a title fight. We want to fight the best UFC fighter.”

When asked what amount they were looking for for Holm’s debut, Fresquez was clear.

“We’re looking for six figures,” he replied. “And there’s not too many fighters that make six figures. Right now Holly earns probably more than 80% of the male fighters in the UFC, and probably earns more than 98 of the female fighters.”

“We’d like to work with them, I don’t want to be disrespectful to the UFC. But they also have to understand. They’ve bought Strikeforece, they’ve bought all these different ones. Holly’s a franchise, as you can see. She’s not just your normal fighter. She’s more of a franchise, a key marquee. And to be honest with you, I think she’d represent the face of the UFC better than Ronda Rousey.

“She’s a classy person, not that Ronda’s not a classy person. I think she’d make a beautiful (face of WMMA).

Holm’s next fight will reportedly be with Brazilian flyweight Julie Werner in a co-promotion with Legacy FC for the bantamweight title in March in Albuquerque. Werner lost to Vanessa Porto, three times, and has not faced someone with a winning record since 2005.