Round 2 after TKO. UFC president Dana White confirmed on Thursday, Dec. 3, that Ronda Rousey will get a rematch against defending bantamweight titleholder Holly Holm, who defeated her at UFC 193 last month.
White told the Mike & Mike radio show on Thursday that there would be another match between the ladies, though he offered up no definitive timeline or location. “I think that if we didn’t make the rematch, me and Lorenzo should probably lose our promoters’ license,” White said of UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta. “Yeah, that fight’s going to happen. I don’t know when, but that’s the fight that will happen.”
He explained why a rematch was of importance to the league. “Ronda Rousey has gone undefeated, taken the sport to another level, and was beating the best women in the world in 14 seconds or 30 seconds, so she deserves a rematch.”
In fact, White has already had the discussion with Rousey’s opponent, Holm. “Holly agrees she deserves a rematch,” the UFC exec said. “And we’ll figure it out.”
On Nov. 14, Holm, 34, shocked boxing fans everywhere when she knocked out Rousey, 28, with a blow to the head in the second round of their match. After her loss, Rousey — who is currently on medical suspension after suffering injuries — addressed her millions of Instagram followers. “I just wanted to thank everyone for the love and support,” Rousey wrote on Nov. 15. “I appreciate the concerns about my health, but I’m fine. As I had mentioned before, I’m going to take a little bit of time, but I’ll be back.”
Holm, meanwhile, said on Nov. 23 that she and Rousey haven’t spoken since the fight. “I know there’s a lot of emotion going into a fight, but everything in a fight — none of it comes out of an evil heart,” the New Mexico native told HuffPost Live. “It’s just two people chasing the same dream . . . I appreciate the champion that she’s been . . . I appreciate everything she’s done for the sport.”
However, she’s totally up for a rematch. “I’ll train just as hard, I’ll train twice as hard for the rematch, because anyone who has been as successful as Ronda has obviously been a champion for a reason,” Holm told Extra co-host Mario Lopez in the days following her initial win. “She’s a very dominant athlete, a very hard-working athlete, so I know she’ll be coming back with a vengeance and I’ll have to be ready.”
