Exclusive | I don’t want my career to be defined by beating Ronda Rousey, says Holly Holm ahead of Singapore Fight Night

Holly Holm will forever be known as the woman who dethroned Ronda Rousey, that flying left foot back in 2015 shaking up the world of mixed martial arts just as much as it did the fighter who until that moment had been the undisputed queen of the UFC.

Holm wants her story to be about so much more than that one victory but it’s a topic that’s impossible for the 35-year-old American to escape, and so it was again early on Thursday morning.

A conference call was designed to help push the UFC’s Fight Night card in Singapore on June 17 – which Holm is headlining. But with UFC boss Dana White just hours before claiming he thought Rousey was done, Holm was called on to have her say on the matter, too.

Holm said she hoped it wasn’t the end of the line for the woman who helped so much to drive MMA’s crossover into the mainstream sports market – but the decision on whether or not Rousey should return to the cage had to come from within.

“You have to have your heart in it. If she has the desire she should do it,” said Holm. “If she has any desire in her then she should do it. She should learn from the losses – and move forward. I hope she’s not fighting [just] because of the two losses. If she wanted to come to back then she should, and just learn from her mistakes. [But] I don’t want to watch a fighter fight if she doesn’t want to be in there.”

Holm’s own career might have stumbled somewhat since she beat Rousey to claim the UFC’s bantamweight title – she’s had three straight losses since that heady night in Melbourne to take her mark to 10-3 – but Holm has vowed to add to her own legacy in the sport when she headlines the Singapore card.