Holly Holm pulled off one of the most stunning upsets in combat sports history when she scored a vicious head kick knockout over Ronda Rousey to become bantamweight champion at UFC 193 in 2015. Sadly her reign ended less than four months later when Holm was submitted by Miesha Tate at UFC 196, but it turns out that wasn’t the fight the promotion wanted.
UFC CEO Dana White claims he desperately tried to book Holm in a rematch against Rousey that would have paid her a ridiculous amount of money but
ultimately her team passed on the offer. White addressed the subject after criticizing Jon Jones’ team for turning down a late-notice opponent change to face Chael Sonnen after Dan Henderson suffered an injury that eventually led to UFC 151 being completely cancelled.
White says Holm endured similarly bad advice when the offer was on the table to run it back with Rousey for a huge increase in her pay from the first fight.
“These are the same guys that had Holly Holm and in my opinion ruined her life,” White told The Jim Rome Show.
“She had the opportunity to rematch immediately Ronda Rousey and for unbelievable money. They turned it down and they said ‘we don’t want that fight. We’ll fight Miesha Tate for the same money we have now.’”
At the time, Rousey was one of the biggest stars on the entire UFC roster and her loss was certainly one of the most shocking moments in the history of the sport.
White revealed that the UFC wasted no time in trying to book the rematch to capitalize on the attention the first fight received, but Holm’s team just wasn’t interested.
“So big drama goes on between us all,” White said. “I said so you want to fight the second-baddest woman in the world for the same money instead of fighting [Ronda Rousey]? [They said] ‘Yes, that’s what we want.’
“I told them in that meeting, ask my matchmakers, Lorenzo Fertitta, I said she’s going to lose by choke. She’s going to choke her out. That’s exactly what happened. For the same money instead of fighting Ronda for life-changing money that would have changed her life.”
While it was a back-and-forth fight throughout, Holm eventually suffered a fifth-round rear-naked choke submission loss to Tate and that ended her run as champion. Holm did compete in three more UFC title fights, but she never won another championship belt before asking for her release from the promotion in early 2025.
Since that time, Holm returned to her roots in boxing after signing with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.
As for Rousey, she ended up sitting out for over a year after that loss to Holm and eventually returned for a title fight against Amanda Nunes. Rousey suffered a nasty first-round knockout in that fight, which served as her final appearance in the UFC before calling it a career.
Holm and Rousey never met again.
