Holly Holm: UFC Just Signed The Last Best Chance To Beat Ronda Rousey

Holly Holm is a highly respected figure in fighting circles, even if she has yet to amass the marquee value of “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey.

That’s largely because Holm has been quietly winning fights while Rousey has been more visible and vocal. (Of course, it helps that Ronda can back up the trash talk.)

Now it appears these two athletes are heading for a showdown after UFC boss Dana White finally brought Holm into the company after months of negotiations.

Fox Sports notes that the world boxing champion has signed an exclusive, multi-fight deal with Ultimate Fighting Championships.

She comes to the promotion with an unbeaten MMA record of 7-0. That’s after one of the more prolific professional boxing records of 33-2-3.

(One of those two losses was avenged via knockout in her very next fight. The other came relatively early in her career. In the cage, though, she’s gold.)

Holm’s MMA career reached its pinnacle — at least prior to signing with UFC — in her title match against Juliana Werner at Legacy Fighting Championships 30 when she won the inaugural Women’s Bantamweight Championship by fifth round TKO.

During the fight, she broke her arm but still managed to finish. However, the nature of that injury is making UFC gun-shy about announcing her first opponent.

Many hope it will be Ronda, but fight fans may need a little bit longer to get to know the name Holly Holm, so a warm-up bout is likely.

If Holm manages to win that warmup, however, we would expect her very next fight to be against Rousey. Just looking back at how Dana White rushed WWE star Brock Lesnar into the Heavyweight title picture (in spite of the fact Brock had done nothing to earn it), we don’t see the boss man waiting too long for this superfight.

Speaking of Dana White, he tweeted that the deal had been signed on Thursday evening.

Welcome to the UFC @_HOLLYHOLM pic.twitter.com/BxNVy8SYTR

— Dana White (@danawhite) July 10, 2014

White seems considerably happier about the deal than he was when negotiations fell through last time the two sides tried to deal.

At the time, it appeared White was upset that Holm’s agent had spoken too soon publicly, so he shut everything down. Thankfully for UFC fans, cooler heads have now prevailed.

What do you think, readers? Did the UFC make a good acquisition bringing Holly Holm on board? And what are her chances of beating Ronda Rousey in the cage?

[Image via Holly Holm Facebook Page]