Holly Holm's credentials as a professional boxing champion were well advertised as she transitioned into the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA).
Before signing with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the great debate was how Holm -- a seventeen-time world champion -- would stack up against Ronda Rousey, the UFC women's bantamweight champion and pound-for-pound best female fighter on the planet.
There's just one problem: There is no validity to Holly's 17 world titles.
That's according to retired UFC middleweight and ESPN analyst Chael Sonnen, who recently told Submission Radio that claiming she is a seventeen-time world champion is a ridiculous claim that he simply won't sign off on.
"Holly is gaining some fan support, and as far as the locker room goes, we can't get behind her 'cause she's not telling the truth, that there is no validity that I'm willing to sign off on -- and I'm happy for someone to come in and disagree with me, tell me where I'm wrong. But there is no validity to any of her world championships, let alone some ridiculous claim of being a seventeen-time world champion. I mean guys, I can go open the door to my garage right now, invite all comers, and then put a belt around whoever wins and call it the 'world championship'. And I mean that kind of stuff happens all the time. You see it in arm wrestling. There's a world championship for some game called 'cornholing', which is like some Midwest version of horseshoes. There's world championships for thumb wrestling, and there's no validity to this stuff. There's no validity to her being a seventeen-time world champion, and I don't believe as an analyst that there's any validity to any, zero of her championships. I don't know any tournament she entered where the entire planet was welcome to enter. I've been making this claim for a while wanting someone, wanting Holly to disagree with me. I want her coaches to come out and say, 'Chael, you don't know what you're talking about.' It's never happened. She's got the thumb-wrestling world championship from some dude's garage. That's just the reality. I do think she's a skilled fighter, I think she's a good boxer. I don't know if that matters. I'm 38 years old, I've never met a female boxer. Not one. I've traveled the world, I've seen damn near every continent in every country, I've been in every state in America, I've never reached across a table and shaken hands with a woman that turned out she was a boxer. So are you the best boxer in the world for females? Maybe? Does that mean you beat about three people? Yeah, it does."
Sonnen in true form.
For the record, before bolting for MMA, Holm was the IBA, WBC, WBF, WBAN, IFBA, WIBA, and NABF welterweight champion of the world and had a pro record of 32-2-3 in the boxing world.
But "The Preacher's Daughter" also possesses good MMA skills, too, as she racked up an impressive 7-0 record on the regional circuit before claiming her first two wins inside the Octagon.
That was good enough to earn her a shot against "Rowdy," which will go down at UFC 193 on Nov. 14, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. And maybe if she pulls off the upset and somehow manages to knock out the undefeated champion, she can give some validity to her boxing accolades.
But does she really need it?
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