Holm: Anyone can be my opponent, including Pena

In an ideal world, Holly Holm would have planned to play two races in 2021 and might even wear the UFC championship belt on her own drug test at the end of the year.

None of this happened, however, as she dropped out of the tournament twice due to kidney stones and knee injuries, including the scheduled may showdown with Julianna Pena, who defeated Amanda Nunes at the end of the year to become the new UFC women's welterweight champion.

Watching his intended opponent realize his plan at the beginning of the year, Holm fell into deep thought and began to prepare for his return in 2022.

"I'm very confused and I'm fixing bugs. Now that I feel better, I first want to make sure I'm healthy and then I'm going to go back to training. ”

"When I saw my original opponent playing in an octagon cage, I wanted to be the one who fought on the pitch, especially when I saw the title battle between Nunez and Pena, I felt lost and frustrated inside. I got off track last year and now I'm dealing with these accidents and trying to get back on track, and I'm going to keep trying to move forward. I'm not going to let these things crush me and I hope to come back to the race as soon as possible. ”

"My knee injury wasn't a big problem, I didn't need surgery at all, I didn't need a long recovery time, but it still forced me to withdraw from the October match against Norma Dumont. I'm looking forward to getting back to training in a month, and now I've started training a little bit. I don't want to make false promises to the fans, I'll come day by day, but I feel like I'm ready to go back to full-load training right away. ”

Holm was clearly not convinced that Pena had beaten Nunez to become the new UFC women's welterweight champion, as she herself might have been able to beat Pena in May and thus become the one to challenge Nuñez. Nevertheless, Holm generously praised Pena for her outstanding performance in this championship battle.

"Congratulations, she's doing great, she's doing what she's supposed to do. While no one knows what's going on behind the scenes, I don't think Nunez was at her best that night, but losing is losing, and there's no excuse. Pena is a beast that doesn't flinch, and that's why people are afraid of her, and I think whoever you're playing against should be feared and respected for them. ”

"Pena changed the situation with a series of stabs in her standing, and a lot of the matches were reversed in this way, which completely broke Núñez's defence. I think Núñez was overwhelmed because she didn't expect Pena to do it. When Pena hit her first punch, her attacks kept coming, so I applauded her performance. ”

"In the second round, Nunez almost just stood there and fought with Pena head-on, and I think she probably thought she could catch the opportunity to hit her KO opponent. This also happened in my game where I got hit a few hits by my opponent, but I believed I could fight back against my opponent, which made me completely lose the strategy of the game. Some would say that Nunez lost because she was not in form, but in my experience, it's not that simple, but because you're in control of the rhythm by your opponent. This is also what makes Pena outstanding, and one should not ignore Pena's excellence on the grounds that Nunez is not in a state. ”

Although both Pena and Núñez have agreed to play a second match immediately, it remains unclear when the game will be played. Holm believes it is not impossible for him to challenge Pena directly in the next match, either because it was supposed to take place last May and because he was in the middle of a two-game winning streak and defeated another popular champion challenger, Irene Aldana.

"To be honest, I do have the potential to be Pena's next opponent and you never know what's going to happen. Although the fight between them seems to come naturally, a player will always say that he needs more time before the rematch arrives, so you can never guess what will happen next. ”

"I think my next game will probably be anyone, from Pena to Miesha Tate, to Ketlen Vieira and Aspen Ladd, and I think anything can happen."

"I want to get back into the octagon as soon as possible and I want to say to the people at the UFC ' Hey, I'm ready, any time, any opponent, just throw it at me'. I'm really close to coming back and all I need to do now is train and then win my place, and I hope that happens as soon as possible. (UFC China Dana)

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