Addressing thousands of her Albuquerque supporters, friends and the mayor on “Holly Holm Day”, newly-crowned UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm showed gratitude for the support of her coaches, teammates, family and community. Holm’s hometown threw a parade in her honor on Sunday following her second round knockout win over Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 last month.
“I can have all the support in the world but if nobody’s in the stands watching the fight I don’t even have a job,” Holm said. “I can’t tell you enough… I’m going through this parade and I’m crying… I love you guys. I see all the signs and I see the happy faces. You here Albuquerque made this possible. My career started here. My fans started here. My whole career started right here and it wasn’t just my team that helped me believe in myself, it was the support of Albuquerque, and I just thank you so much for taking the time.”
The 34-year-old former boxing world champion told the crowd up front that she wears her heart on her sleeve and she would likely get emotional. And she did. But it’s nice for a change to see the good girl win, and from all appearances, it really couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
No smack talk. No bullshit. This girl just put in the work for years and years. Evolving from boxer and kickboxer to an MMA fighter who stood toe-to-toe with a seemingly invincible judo Olympian and put her down, hard. And the best part about this story is that Holm did it all from her hometown gym and under the training of her original coaches Mike Winkeljohn, Greg Jackson and Izzy Martinez.
Albuquerque has great reason to celebrate female combat sports icon Holly Holm. And female combat sports fans have great reason to look forward to the Champ’s return to the Octagon to see just how far she can ride this wave of success as 135-pound female sharks nip at her heels.
Check out the Champ’s full speech below, “shot from the hip”.
Here’s another view.