Former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm will be battling Germaine De Randamie at UFC 208 to crown the first ever UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion.
However, Holm was the first woman to ever defeat former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey. Following the loss, Rousey would hold a complete media blackout leading to her unsuccessful return at UFC 207. Holm believes the media blackout showed just how weak minded Rousey is.
“I was a little worried about her mental game getting in there,” Holm told MMA Fighting. “I know a lot of people said ‘no MMA media, none of that’, because she didn’t want any distractions. Well, I really hate to do all of it, but guess what, that’s what comes with the fight, and if I didn’t do it, I don’t even think I would be ready for the fight.”
Holm has suffered her fair share of losses in combat sports as well, but she believes that talking to the media has helped her out in the end.
“If you can’t even talk about it, if you can’t even be doing the normal thing leading up, I don’t think you’re really ready to get in there and actually fight. If you can’t really talk about it, how are you gonna get in and perform on it? I’m kind of a believer in that. I feel like you have to be able to kind of face it, and sometimes I think if you’re trying to ignore those facts, I feel like the focus really isn’t there. So I was kind of worried if she gets in, is she really gonna be ready to just go, when she hasn’t really had to talk about it or face it or really get into it in that way,” says Holm.
UFC 208 takes place on Saturday, February 11 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Holly Holm and Germaine De randamie headlining.