Former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm has achieved lots of success in both MMA and pro boxing.
The female fighting star also gives UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor lots of credit for his performance in “The Money Fight.”
“I felt like McGregor was going to be able to land some shots on Mayweather at first,” Holm said on The MMA Hour, “which he did. I gave him, easily, the first three rounds. Arguably the fourth, maybe eighth. The beginning of the fight, he... With that being said, Mayweather lets people kinda punch a little bit, has more of a slower start and paces himself. So, it didn't surprise me that Mayweather was kinda letting McGregor do his thing. But, I also think at the same time, McGregor was frustrating Mayweather. It's been a long time since someone's frustrated Mayweather in there. Just by his different style. And I know that, being a lefty, McGregor was kinda throwing a couple of those back-hand uppercuts, because Mayweather leans to the right. He always kinda fights like that in his defensive style. I felt like he did some good things. I'm proud of both of them. I think it was a good fight. I think McGregor showed people, I think he really surprised a lot of people. And Mayweather, now he's at 50-0. You can't really... I think a lot of people were happy to watch the fight, but some people were thinking it was just this big joke. I think that just showed that it's martial arts, whether it's boxing or MMA. It showed that it's just two people passionate about fighting, about martial arts. They were able to bring their best to the table. Gosh, that's a big deal to be able to take on Mayweather and make it a fight. I thought it was entertaining to watch.”
Holm has seemingly left the boxing world behind her since becoming a professional MMA fighter, having won the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Title and the Legacy Fighting Championships Women’s Bantamweight Title.
Even though she thinks Conor did good in the fight, the former women’s bantamweight champion believes he could’ve done better.
“I think he could have done better, but I think that's just what comes with 49 fights, twelve-round fights. Mayweather has that experience. So, it's kind of hard to know what that is going to feel like, that twelve 3-minute rounds, when you've never done it before. To have people look at it a little differently, the five 5-minute rounds in MMA is 25 minutes. Well, a boxing fight is 36 minutes. That's eleven minutes more. Three 5-minute rounds if fifteen minutes, so basically - to do a twelve-round boxing fight - that's doing a title fight, five 5-minute rounds... It's almost like a title fight and a regular 3-round fight. It's only four minutes shy of that. So, it is longer when you think about that. People are "Oh 25 minutes, 36 minutes." No, that's only four minutes shy of doing a title fight and a 3-round fight in MMA,” says Holm.
The former women’s champion doesn’t have a fight scheduled at the moment, but she has expressed interest in fighting UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion Cyborg.
