Almost as soon as Miesha Tate defeated Holly Holm to become the UFC Womens Bantamweight Champion, fans began debating who Tate should defend her title against first. Should Holm be granted a rematch, or should Ronda Rousey be given an opportunity against a familiar foe in Tate to regain the Championship?
The former champion Holm, who was winning on March 5 against Tate heading into the fifth and final round before succumbing to an improbable come from behind submission (rear-naked choke) with just 90 seconds left, hopes it’s the former. To have victory snatched from the jaws of defeat has strengthened her resolve to get back in the gym right away, with hopes of getting the “bitter taste out of [her] mouth.”
And she knows that a rematch with Tate might make the most sense right now, if Rousey won’t be ready — as projected — to fight again until mid-fall.
Then again, with Rousey giving some indication that she might be on the road back to competition, a lot of whispers have kicked up that perhaps the trilogy fight with Tate has hastened her step a bit. After all, Rousey is 2-0 against Tate, and 0-1 against Holm. If Rousey recovers in time to face Tate sooner than expected, Holm thinks you can read into that how you want.
“You know, if that’s the case then…I think things will play out how they play out,” Holm said during an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour on MMAFighting.com. “I think other people will see that if she’s coming back now there’s a different motive. I know for me I want to be able to fight, and I know that now that the championship isn’t mine I can’t really delegate or say what I want. It’s frustrating. I have nobody to blame but myself. I’m the one that lost the fight.”
Holm shocked Rousey at UFC 193 in November, scoring a second-round knockout over MMA’s most transcendent star. Yet because she opted to stay busy while Rousey recovered and fulfilled her Hollywood commitments — and ended up losing the fight to Tate — she knows she has to stand by and let things fall as they may.
“If they put [Rousey vs. Tate III] on then I guess I’m just going to have to suck it up and wait for my opportunity,” she said. “I’d love to rematch both of them. Of course, if I had it my way I’d like to be able to avenge my loss, because that’s the thing that put a bitter taste in my mouth right now.
“That’s what I want to do is work for that, but I would take either fight for sure. Which is just how it is always. I always want to take whatever opportunities that I have, I want to be able to do that. I mean, but obviously I want to avenge my loss. That’s the biggest thing on my mind.”
Given the uncertainty of Rousey’s timetable, and knowing that Tate wants to fight sooner rather than later, the 34-year old Holm said she hopes the rematch can be booked for the summer blowout — UFC 200 in July.
She also thinks there’d be greater intrigue the second time through.
“You know, I don’t know,” she said. “I think a lot of people would be curious to watch it. I think it would be a good fight to put on, I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to put it on. People are curious to see what will happen now. I mean, it went from Ronda being unbeatable to being beat and then me only having it one time. It’s kind of created that round robin that a lot of these famous match-ups over history have been.
“I don’t see why [the UFC] wouldn’t want to put it on, but I’m obviously just a fighter, not a promoter. And of course I’m just going to sit here and say I want the rematch the whole time. I hope they put it on, but there hasn’t been any sure thing of that, and they haven’t promised anything to me. And of course, too, right now Miesha’s the champ. I’m sure that she’s the biggest voice in this. She’s the one holding the title. So I just hope that she gives me the chance to fight for it, just like I gave her the chance.”
Though Holm said her druthers are to get that title shot, she said she doesn’t want to remain idle one way or another. Should things not shake out for her regarding the rematch with Tate, Holm said she still wants to keep busy.
“I still want to fight,” she said. “I want to see if we can get the rematch for sure. But, I do still want to fight. You know, we’ll see what happens. I don’t know what they’ll want to put together.”