Holly Holm doesn't care if Ronda Rousey comes back or not
UFC women's bantamweight champion Holly Holm has already moved onto her next matchup against Miesha Tate and she's no longer concerned whether or not she faces Ronda Rousey again or not.
Immediately after Holm knocked Rousey out last November, UFC president Dana White all but confirmed that there would be an immediate rematch.
Rousey ultimately took time off to focus on her second career as an actress with a couple of film commitments already booked and the UFC opted to put Holm against Tate instead with the new fight set for UFC 197 in March.
Holm says that she's not focused on Rousey at this point, but if the former champion returns to action and wants to fight again, she's game. If Rousey opts to retire and never fight again, Holm is also completely at ease with that scenario as well.
"For me I want to keep fighting and if Ronda wants to come back and that's her passion -- great. If she wants to stay in movies -- great," Holm said on Wednesday.
"I think that I would rather meet someone in the cage when they're passionate about it. I don't want it to be because they feel like they have to or it's expected or other people are curious about it. It's Ronda's life, I want her to do what she wants to do."
Holm says she went through a similar scenario during her boxing career whenever the name Laila Ali was brought up to her.
Ali retired undefeated in 2007 when she was only 30 years old, but her exit didn't come without some questions about some of the competition she never faced during her career.
Holm never questioned Ali's decision to walk away because if she didn't want to fight, no one should want to watch her anyway -- and the same rule applies for Rousey.
"In my whole boxing career, Laila Ali kind of ended short of what a lot of people thought. They always used to ask me, 'What do you think about that? I think that she should stick around and prove this and prove that.' Well, if she doesn't want to fight, I don't want to watch her fight," Holm said. "I don't want to watch a fighter doing it that's not passionate about it.
"So if Ronda wants to fight, awesome. If she wants to go onto different avenues of her life, great, whatever."
It appears Holm is ready to move on from Rousey and focus on Tate and will worry about the former champion when and if she decides to return from her hiatus and challenge for the title again.
