White: Holm fight ‘way more intriguing’ than Tate
Dana White: “We were talking about Miesha from the start, then as we started sitting around we were saying, ‘Everyone has seen the Miesha fight already.'”
Friday morning UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey announced on Good Morning America that her next title defense was against Holly Holm, rather than Ronda Rousey.
She’s definitely my biggest challenge to date,” said Rousey, as transcribed by Lance Pugmire for the LA Times. “So I’m super excited about it.”
Holly Holm, she’s the type that is ready to go 12 boxing rounds. She’s not the average chick that I fight. She’s the best striker I’ve ever fought, and striking is something I learned much later in my career. So I don’t ever expect fights to be easy and fast. No one knows exactly how the fights are going to go, and that’s why everybody buys them.
Reaction ranged from cheers to jeers to bafflement, with the hardcore fanbase by and large unconvinced.
We were talking about Miesha from the start, then as we started sitting around we were saying, ‘Everyone has seen the Miesha fight already,’ said White.
A third fight in a rivalry usually comes after the stuff we’d see in Gatti-Ward. With Miesha, the result has been the same twice. Everyone’s already seen that fight.
The hardcore fanbse had hoped that the card might also feature a catchweight between Tate and Cris Cyborg. White said that he will try to put a #1 contender fight between Tate and Amanda Nunes on the card.
Theres two sides to the coin … I’m not sure losing another fight to Ronda so soon would be good for Miesha, said White. She’s not going anywhere. I think she’ll be fine.
Everyone has jitters in their first fight. Holly came back from that (split decision over Raquel Pennington in her league debut in Feb) and destroyed a woman who’d looked damn good in her previous fights.”
When you talk about the possibilities of what Holly can do … she’s a world-class boxer … the Holly Holm fight for Ronda is way more intriguing.
White also confirmed that the UFC 195 co-main will be strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Claudia Gadelha, provided Gadelha is sufficiently recovered from a finger injury suffered in her last fight.