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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Holly Holm has yet to make her UFC debut, but her name continues to be pushed as a potential contender to Ronda Rousey's UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship. However, Holm herself continues to push back on that idea, insisting that she believes she needs more experience before getting that fight.
That's not to say she wouldn't take the fight with Rousey if offered, but she says that's not how she'd prefer to progress at this point in her MMA career.
"I think it's because people are excited and they want to see the fight," Holm said of the continued push of a potential Rousey bout in an interview with FoxSports.com. "I just figure if people are interested in me and what I'm doing then we've done something right."
"I've never said no to a fight or picked an opponent so if they said that had to be my next fight, I would just have to change my whole chain of thought and just say okay, 'Let's do it.' But if it were up to me, I'd like to have more experience."
For Holm, who has plenty of combat experience but a limited time in MMA overall, it's more about being as prepared as possible if and when she fights Rousey. To get there, she thinks getting a few more fights under her belt would be quite beneficial.
"I've only had seven fights total, and I'm just being honest: I've had some tough girls that give a good fight, but they haven't been the highest ranked either," Holm said. "It's not that I don't believe in myself to know I can compete with these other top girls, but would I want a few more fights? Absolutely. Because when I go in there and face her, I want to do well. But if they said it had to be soon, I would definitely believe in myself to win."
Penick's Analysis: One of the problems with this division is a general lack of truly tested competition. Holm has won seven fights, and is expected to make it eight against Raquel Pennington on Saturday night, but that would be her biggest career win to date. That's not the level of competition that truly prepares someone for Rousey at this stage, if Rousey can even really be prepared for at this point in her career. Holm wants to be the best version of herself possible if and when she gets a title fight, and it's a great attitude for her to have. She may still get fast tracked by the UFC, but it won't be necessarily of her own doing if that happens.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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