Holly Holm 'humbled' by Jon Jones calling her the greatest of all time
Holly Holm is best known these days as the woman who knocked Ronda Rousey right out of her undefeated record at UFC 193 in Australia, but long before that she was a world champion boxer with one of the most impressive résumés in the history of the sport.
Holm was a two-time "Ring" magazine fighter of the year and fought a laundry list of tough opponents over the years before finally transitioning to MMA.
Since becoming a full-time mixed martial artist, Holm is undefeated and now has a UFC title to add to her growing collection of accolades. Her accomplishments are virtually unmatched compared to any other fighter in the world and Holm's teammate Jon Jones took notice recently when he called her "the greatest of all time" when it came to women's combat sports.
Holm and Jones have bonded over the past few years while serving as teammates at the Jackson-Winkeljohn gym in New Mexico, and his belief in her ability means the world to the new UFC champion.
"First with Jon, his faith and confidence in me doing well is something that was instrumental in even just being successful in this fight," Holm told FOX Sports recently. "He's been a great teammate, very supportive, had really good input (and) even advice on the fight.
"He has the same coaches that I do and he's been able to take what they taught and really perform it beautifully. He has a perfect mind for fighting so I love to pick his brain sometimes so I'm very humbled and very flattered by his kind words. So I really appreciate him very, very much."
As far as Jones' claim that Holm is already at the top of the mountain when it comes to women's combat sports history, she's not ready to ring that bell just yet but the new UFC champ is proud of what she's been able to accomplish thus far.
While boxers have dabbled in mixed martial arts before and mixed martial artists have tried their hand at boxing, never before has an athlete been considered the best of the best at each sport.
Holm is widely considered one of the best women's boxers of all time with her multiple title reigns and wins over some of the biggest names in the sport such as Christy Martin.
Now she's added Rousey's name to her resume as well and it's hard to deny that Holm has already etched her name into the history books.
"As far as myself what I'm proud for is that I do feel like I've accomplished a lot," Holm said. "I never feel finished, but I do feel like I accomplished something. I feel like I'm pretty prideful about the fact that I'm the only one that's been able to get world titles in both and boxing and MMA at the elite level with the top-ranked fighters.
"That's something with belt or no belt, I just love that. I can take that with me through life and know that I really challenged myself. I didn't stay where I was comfortable. I put myself out there."
