Before Saturday night, Holly Holm's name was recognizable — if at all — only as Ronda Rousey's presumed next victim, destined to be forgotten after the expected beating was handed down by the champ.
Holm changed all that with her upset in Melbourne, Australia, at UFC 193, and the 34-year-old's profile only figures to grow after the stunning result. In the meantime, here are five things you need to know about the new women's bantamweight champion:
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1. Holm grew up in Albuquerque, the youngest of Roger Holm and Tammy Bredy's three children. Her father has a degree in agricultural business from Colorado State but has long served as a preacher — most recently with the Edgewood Church of Christ outside Albuquerque — and has always supported her fighting career even though he is constantly questioned about it. “I’ve always told Holly two things,” he recently told the Albuquerque Journal. “I said, No. 1, I’m behind you if you want to quit tomorrow. But if she wants to keep fighting, that’s fine. It’s living.”
2. A former high school soccer player, Holm started kickboxing for aerobics before switching to boxing, where she posted a 33-2-3 record and was a world champion in three weight classes. Ten years ago, she defeated pioneering boxer Christy Martin in a unanimous decision in a bout that helped launch her career.
3. Holm is still working to transition from boxing to MMA, with only 10 matches now under her belt in the new discipline, but her toughness can't be questioned. Before the Rousey fight, her most impressive showing might have been a fifth-round knockout of Juliana Werner in Legacy FC 30 in April 2014. What was so great about a fifth-round KO when Rousey routinely dispatched her foes in less than a minute? Holm broke her left arm in the first round of the Werner bout and didn't tell her corner about it until after the fourth round.
#UFC #mma Holly Holm suffers broken arm in victory over Julianna Werner http://t.co/cglBkYWYdd
— MMA Coach (@MMACoachLV) April 5, 20144. Holm's husband, Jeff Kirkpatrick, is vice president of operations for AAA Roofing in Albuquerque, his family's business. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of New Mexico in accounting and finance. He and Holm were married in 2012.
5. Despite her line of work, Holm is known for being kind and down-to-earth. Her longtime agent and promoter Lenny Fresquez summed up her personality in an interview with MMA Fighting after the Rousey bout: "The baddest girl on the planet — and the nicest girl on the planet on top of it. … Holly’s not a fake. What you see is what you get."
After watching her daughter's big moment Saturday night in Albuquerque, Tammy Bredy seconded that notion: "I think everybody’s already kind of figured out she’s a pretty class act," Bredy told the Journal. "She’s sweet, concerning — she’s always just been a wonderful, wonderful person from the time she was a little girl."
