Sports

Ronda Rousey Sends Warning to Holly Holm About Potential Rematch

Ronda Rousey has only two blemishes on her professional mixed martial arts record, and both of them were memorable beatdowns at the hands of two of the top strikers in the sport: Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.

Holm is no longer under the UFC banner after requesting her release last January, and given that Rousey is no longer under contract with the company either, if the two wanted a rematch, now would be the time to do it.

Rousey claims she's officially retired after her 17-second submission win over Gina Carano at MVP MMA, Rousey vs. Carano nearly two weeks ago. But during a recent appearance on FanDuel TV's "Up & Adams," Rousey disclosed that if that rematch were to happen, she's confident in her ability to come out on top.

"I think that I am a completely different fighter now," Rousey stated. "I would clean her clock and definitely now that I got that new medication - I took it before, I was diagnosed with cortical spreading depression, which was always happening in my last fights and basically why I was like I need to stop. I thought my concussions were catching up to me.

"This is the first fight where I was able to take it and when I spiked my head into the mat, that's exactly the kind of thing that would have set me off before. I would have lost big chunks of my vision and it didn't come back at all. It ended up working perfectly in a live situation."

Holm won their first encounter at UFC 193 in November 2015 via second-round KO. In that fight, Holm, a former world champion boxer, battered Rousey with her kickboxing before ultimately ending the fight with a vicious head kick and ground-and-pound strikes.

Though Rousey is retired, fighters have been known to come back for special one-off fights against certain opponents. Holm just may be Rousey’s white whale.

"I highly doubt she'll ever want a rematch," Holm told MMA Fighting. "I always have said since the minute the last fight was over, I'll always rematch her. That's always been available.

“But she wanted to come back and have this win and go back and enjoy and have a win like that. No hate from me. I hope she does well. I hope she does whatever she wants with her life. That's her life. I'd always be open to fight her again."

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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 2:38 PM.

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