Holm doesn't want career to be based around Rousey
Being known as the only woman to defeat Ronda Rousey has been the gift and the curse for Holly Holm.
The 34-year-old fighter got a taste of the rollercoaster that is MMA when she lost the women's bantamweight title to Miesha Tate at UFC 196 in March in her first defense after upsetting Rousey four months prior.
Even worse, UFC president Dana White threw Holm and her management under the bus when he criticized them for taking a fight with Tate instead of waiting for a Rousey rematch.
Rousey has been out of action since last November, so Holm feels completely justified in moving on to another opponent even if the result didn't go her way.
"I don't think that a whole division should be based around one fighter, one fight, one moment," Holm said at a media lunch on Monday, according to Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting. "I don't want my career to be based around one fighter. It's my career, too. And I wanted to keep pushing forward with it and doing well with it.
"If I wait around for one fighter, then what is that for me? So am I second best or second priority now? I want to fight for myself and my career and not for someone else."
That's not to say that Holm isn't interested in fighting Rousey again. Were it not for Rousey suffering a broken jaw suffered in their first fight and later undergoing knee surgery, the rematch would have already happened.
But if Holm had held out for that lucrative matchup, she would have joined Rousey on the inactive list for at least a year.
"I 100 percent stand by it, because we're still waiting for Ronda to come back," Holm said. "And that was my point. I told them, I said, 'I will wait for the rematch with Ronda as long as we can promise that it will be by a certain time.'"
Holm next meets Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of UFC on FOX 20 on Saturday. Shevchenko is a dangerous striker who stands to gain far more from pulling off an upset than Holm does by essentially holding serve.
Even if she loses, it doesn't sound like Holm would change a thing about her decision to stay active as opposed to sitting on the sidelines with her belt.
"The best way I've been trying to explain it is OK, then technically I would still have the title right now, but what would I be doing with it?" Holm said. "Just polishing it sitting on the wall? What would be my goal? I'm in this sport because I like to fight."