Holly Holm getting Ronda Rousey next? 'She's got some time to get there,' White says

Holly Holm

LOS ANGELES – Saturday’s UFC 184 co-headliners were set up with the possibility of the two winners then fighting each other. But after Holly Holm’s uneven performance, it appears those potential plans are hold.

Just prior to UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (11-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) scoring a 14-second submission win over challenger Cat Zingano (9-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) in the pay-per-view headliner, former pro boxer Holm (8-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) edged by heavy underdog Raquel Pennington (5-5 MMA, 2-2 UFC) via split decision in the co-headliner.

It wasn’t exactly the rousing performance that previously had fans clamoring for a matchup with the champ (check out the Holm vs. Pennington video highlights). But following the event, which took place at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, UFC President Dana White was willing to give Holm a pass.

“Look, a lot of hype came in around Holly,” White said. “What people have to understand is, for Holly, this is her first time here. It’s her first time in the UFC. I talked to her about this tonight, too. … I don’t care how many titles you’ve won and how many places you’ve fought. You come in here, and it’s a completely different ballgame. You burn a ton of nervous energy. You dump some adrenaline. She went in there tonight and performed. She slid right into the co-main-event position, and she did a great job.”

But was it enough to convince him to book Holm for a title shot with Rousey?

“Let’s let her get a couple fights and start to feel like the UFC is her house and home, and move up in the rankings and get some fights,” White said. “She’s got some time to get there.”

It’s a sentiment Holm shared. When asked about Rousey – whom she praised for her main-event dominance – Holm said it’s not her decision to make.

“I’d like to get my feet wet, and I finally got this first UFC fight over with,” she said. “I never pick a fight. I leave that up to my manager and trainer.”

Holm said she wasn’t overwhelmingly affected by the first-time octagon jitters, but she did have some thoughts persistently running through her head. Primarily, she knew she needed a win, and with a ground and clinch game still in development, Holm said she kept coming back to a similar thought: “I really want to live up to what everybody else is expecting, so I don’t want to push myself into a bad position.”

Despite being a sizable 5-1 favorite, Holm didn’t always look like it against an opponent with a 5-5 career record. However, she said she’ll learn from her first trip to the UFC octagon and take some positives out of it. Then, eventually, it might lead to Rousey.

“I’m never completely satisfied with any fight I’ve ever had … but if there are things I have to look at that I had to do good – because I like to try to stay on the positive side of things – we worked on takedown defense and clinch work, and I felt fine in those areas tonight,” Holm said. “But some of the stuff I want to do better? I didn’t really sit down on my punches like I wanted to. There are a lot of things I want to do better, and I know I’m capable of more, so I’m not 100 percent satisfied with my performance.

“But I will take the things I know I did well and take them with me and try to improve on all the others.”

For more on UFC 184, check out the UFC Events section of the site.