UFC 208: Holly Holm wants a rematch with Germaine de Randamie
The inaugural featherweight title bout in the UFC didn't go Holly Holm's way, losing to Germaine de Randamie by unanimous decision. It was a close fight, but the lasting memory from the bout will be the late shots de Randamie landed on Holm after the bell in two rounds,
“The second time you would think at that point they’d do something,” Holm, the former bantamweight champion, said at the post-fight presser. “It wasn’t like the last punch of a combination when the bell rang. It was intentional and it was after the bell.
“Those were some of her best shots of the whole night, after the bell. I don’t know how the judges saw that. If they see that as points for her, then what can you do. I should’ve kept fighting too.”
de Randamie denied any ill-intent on the late strikes.
“It was an accident to hit her after the bell, it was never intentional,” de Randamie said after the fight. “It was just the heat of the moment. I am not that kind of fighter.”
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If Holm got her way, she would get another crack at de Randamie and the featherweight title. The close score and referee Todd Anderson electing not to deduct a point give her a viable case.
“I think it warrants a rematch,” Holm said. “When you have more than half the people saying the fight should have gone the other way, usually that warrants a rematch. So that would be awesome.”
Aware of her situation and her string of losses, Holm recognized that she isn't in a position to call for particular fights.
“I’m sitting in a spot where my last three fights, I’m 0-3, so I’ll take whatever they’ll give me,” Holm said, adding that she'd be open to a fight at 135 or 145 pounds.
Holm's second shot at the 145-pound title has two notable obstacles. After the bout, de Randamie said she needed surgery to repair a torn ligament in her hand. Pundits label Cris Cyborg as the best female 145-pound fighter on the planet, and she is waiting in the wings for her shot at UFC gold.
Holm concedes that she got off to a slow start and thinks the tide turned after the second round, winning the final three rounds, which would be enough to get the win.
“The fight could have gone either way,” she said. “I felt like I had three rounds, but I also had her rocked twice and didn’t capitalize on it, and that’s my own fault.”
Holm also suggested she had lost respect for de Randamie, noting that the competitors aren't in the cage to make friends.
