UFC: I’m super bummed, says Holly Holm as she withdraws from Melbourne with torn hamstring

Former bantamweight champion Holly Holm had some good news and bad news for her fans as she revealed why she had to withdraw from UFC 243 this weekend.

The bad news is she’s definitely out of the main card in Melbourne, but the good news is she doesn’t expect to be out of the game for too long after revealing she tore “30 per cent” of her hamstring, forcing her out of the extravaganza at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.

Revealing details of her injury on Instagram, the fighter, best known as the conqueror of Ronda Rousey in their epic 2015 encounter, said her showdown against Raquel Pennington (10-7 MMA, 7-4 UFC) cannot go ahead because of the injury she suffered last week. However, “The Preacher’s Daughter” (12-5 MMA, 5-5 UFC) told fans she doesn’t think the injury will require surgery and she expects to back fighting in the Octagon “soon” without putting a time frame to her comeback.

“I just wanted to say thank you for all the love. Everybody sending positive thoughts for my injury.

“If you don’t know, I have been injured and I cannot fight in Australia,” 37-year-old American Holm said in her Instagram post. “Something that is super heavy on my heart and I’m super bummed out about. [To] go through a whole training camp and not be able to make it to the fight. And not just for me, this is a training camp for Raquel Pennington as well, my opponent, who I have a lot of respect for.

“I don’t know the scientific terms but the ligament or the tendon that attaches my hamstring to my bone, I tore 30 per cent of it this last week in training. The good news is I don’t need surgery, but it’s just one week’s not enough time to be ready to fight. So I’ll be rehabbing it and I’ll be back at it soon and I will let you guys know when we get this fight rescheduled.”