For as great an offensive performance Holly Holm exhibited at UFC 193 during her upset victory over Ronda Rousey in Melbourne, Australia (see it again here), her defense may have been just as brilliant.
In fact, as Holm sees is it, defending "Rowdy's" go-to moves such as her armbar and hip toss were instrumental in securing the bantamweight title-winning victory.
As Holly recently revealed during her guest spot on ESPN's SportsCenter, it was all part of her plan to frustrate Ronda.
"The further you go, the more uncomfortable it gets to somebody if they've been able to stop everybody else. I know for me, I've been in fights where someone has been really aggressive in boxing for the first five rounds and then they start to die down. Then there has been a couple of times where I had a fight where it's round eight or nine and I'm thinking, 'Is this girl ever going to stop trying to come at me? This is frustrating.' So, I know the further it goes the more frustrating it can be, and that was our goal, to try and take her to a place where she hasn't been during a fight before. I do feel like she got a little frustrated. Maybe she didn't want to do the stand-up anymore, so she pushed me to the cage but I was able to get out. She went for an armbar and I was able to get out. She went for a hip toss, and wasn't able to kind of capitalize on it. So, another fight could be a whole different story, but this fight just wound up panning out for me."
Game, set, match.
As far as a do-over, while UFC president Dana White thinks it makes sense -- especially since he believes Rousey will return a "savage" -- it may have to wait a while as Ronda will likely be out of action for a bit.
And as one longtime veteran suggested, the former Olympian may want to "kick somebody else's butt first" before stepping into the cage against "The Preacher's Daughter" for a second time.
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