18-Time World Boxing Champion Holly Holm Believes A Ronda Rousey Loss ‘Would Benefit’ Women’s MMA

Eighteen-time world boxing champion-turned-mixed martial artist Holly Holm is one of the UFC’s hottest prospects. She is undefeated in her MMA career with six of seven of her wins coming by way of knockout. Given her elite striking skill set and vast experience as a fighter, many believe that Holm will eventually contend for the UFC’s bantamweight title.

However, the woman who currently holds said championship, Ronda Rousey, has finished everyone she has faced. The California native’s dominance has created a large gap between her and the rest of the division. Rousey has already beaten four of the top five contenders in her division with great ease.

In that, per MMA Fighting, Holm recently stated that women’s MMA “would benefit greatly” from a Rousey loss.

“I think it (women’s MMA) would benefit greatly (from a Rousey loss). I think when you see one person do well or kind of bring down the No. 1, then everybody thinks, well if she can do that, I can, too… Ronda has run through everybody in the division. So I think it’s kind of hard when people get in there and stare across the ring and think, Wow, can I really beat her? And you really have to believe you can or else you’re not going to be able to do it. She’s going to be hard to beat. There’s no bones about it. But you also can’t put her on a pedestal so high that you don’t believe you can do well also.”

Nevertheless, Rousey faces Zingano on February 28 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The undefeated fighter believes that she possesses the tools to finally topple one of the greatest MMA fighters of today. In a separate interview with MMA Fighting, Zingano claimed to have “more heart” than the champion.

“I’m unorthodox. There’s just nothing like me. There’s not. They haven’t seen anyone like me. She’s the closest that there gets, but it’s still different. I’m just more well-rounded, I have more heart, I have a lot of things going for me that people just haven’t had a chance to see yet.”

With a win at UFC 184 against Cat Zingano, Rousey will have effectively cleaned out her division, beating all top-five contenders in the process. However, Zingano is sure that her “time” has arrived and appears significantly confident heading into UFC 184.

“She’s (Rousey) never seen or had to deal with anyone like me before,” Zingano expressed to MMA Fighting. “So, it’s gonna be interesting.”

[Featured Image Courtesy of Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]