LAS VEGAS, Nevada — UFC legend Ronda Rousey has been warned against trying to rewrite one of the biggest moments in Australian fight history after surprisingly claiming she lost her famed 2015 Melbourne headliner against Holly Holm due to a concussion caused by falling down stairs.
Speaking on the eve of her hyped UFC 300 showdown, Holm has told Fox Sports Australia she isn’t willing to sit by as one of the greatest Octagon upsets ever is reworked, saying of Rousey’s shock suggestions she lost due to the ongoing impact of head knocks: “I’m not going to let her say that”.
Almost 10 years on from her famed headkick KO of ‘Rowdy’ at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Holm is now set to face another hyped judoka in Sunday’s Las Vegas blockbuster – Kayla Harrison.
UFC 300: PEREIRA V HILL | SUN 14 APR | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the new exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.
It comes as Rousey sat for a BBC interview in recent days where she blamed the shock Holm loss – at the time, the first of her career – on a serious run of concussions.
“It’s hard to look at footage of that match,” Rousey told BBC Sport.
“Because I can literally see in my eyes I’m suffering from a neurological injury decades in the making.
“It [ticks] me off when people see that and say, ‘this is Ronda being outclassed’.
“That’s me with my brain not properly working… I was concussed going into that fight – I fell down the stairs and knocked myself out two weeks before.”
Asked her thoughts about the revelation, Holm told Fox Sports Australia: “Every fighter has had some kind of concussion.
“I know I’d had plenty before the time I walked in there with her.
“And that’s on the fighter.
“There are no excuses.”
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Soon after, Holm continued: “I was the better fighter that night.
“And that’s not me being co*cky.
“It is what it is.
“So I’d never sit here and let (Rousey) be like ‘oh, I didn’t win because I wasn’t well’ …. we all know that’s not the case.
“And again that’s not being co*cky, just factual.
“So I’m not going to let her say that.”
Asked if she was surprised by Rousey’s comments, Holm put it down to the former champ having now spent considerable time “being out of (the UFC) and on a path of her own”.
Holm added it was also likely a nod to her passion for fighting, and competition.
“She had a passion for this sport because she did it for so long and was dominant in doing so,” Holm added. “And sometimes that can tug at your heart strings.”
Like Rousey, Harrison is a former judo champion, who won two Olympic golds before switching to MMA, where she has since won and defended PFL titles.
While she is now making her Octagon debut at UFC 300, Holm sees little resemblance between this fight and her epic upset win over Rousey at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, where she was wider than $10 with bookies.
“Ronda and Kayla both have judo backgrounds but they have very different styles,” Holm said.
“So they’re not the same fighter at all.
“There are very few things from the Rousey fight that apply to this one.”
What about the hype?
UFC 300: PEREIRA V HILL | SUN 14 APR | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the new exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.
UFC 300: Unrivaled Greatness | 02:12
“There is a lot of hype around her,” Holm conceded of Harrison.
“And when a person does come with hype, there’s usually a reason.
“She’s won gold at the Olympics, become PFL champion, defended multiple times … so there is hype and I would rather that.
“I don’t want to fight someone nobody respects.
“I want to fight the best.
“And if people respect her, it’s for a reason.
“So there is purpose behind the hype.
“But not enough that I’m putting her on a pedestal.
“She’s human, just like me.
“And hype doesn’t matter.
“What matters is how you perform.”
Elsewhere, Holm said she was aware of not only how important UFC 193 had been to the growth of Mixed Martial Arts in Australia, but how it helped further take both the sport and company mainstream Down Under.
“When I was there, I could feel that it was big,” she recounted of the huge upset win over Rousey before what was then a UFC record crowd.
“I could feel that energy.
“And even to this day, I’m really grateful to have been part of it.
“When a fight is over and you look back at how many people it touched, how many people were moved by something that you did, it’s like ‘wow’.
“And so many people did feel an emotion over that moment.
“One which we created it.
“And it has to be ‘we’ because for a fight you need two people, and she (Rousey) also needed to be a dominant champion for me to have such a big upset.
“You can’t have one without the other.
“And to be able to feel that even today, to hear people tell their own stories about where they were, what they felt … that’s what reminds me of how big it is.”
