UFC 225 winner Holly Holm: 135-pound title 'probably closest to my heart, but I want it all'

Amid Holly Holm’s “we’ll-see-what-happens” attitude in the lead-up to her UFC 225 meeting with Megan Anderson, one thing was clear: The former women’s bantamweight champion still had sights on re-claiming the belt of a division that felt like “a little more my home.”

On Saturday at Chicago’s United Center, Holm (12-4 MMA, 5-4 UFC) took no notice of Anderson’s (8-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) notable size advantage and put on a dominant display en route to a unanimous-decision win. While that meant a first featherweight win for Holm – after two failed bids for the 145-pound title – it was the bantamweight division that came calling when its current champ Amanda Nunes (16-4 MMA, 9-1 UFC), issued a straightforward “let’s do it” after UFC 225.

Even the women’s featherweight champ, whom Holm met – and lost to – once, Cris Cyborg, encouraged the matchup (albeit with a follow-up suggestion of her own). Between that, and Holm’s previously stated desire, it would appear that’s pretty much a done deal, right?

Anything you lose, you want back, right?” Holm said after the pay-per-view main-card fight, when asked by MMAjunkie if a bantamweight title fight is next. “That’s something that’s dear to you. I think that’s probably closest to my heart, but I want it all. I don’t think that you’d even get in this game if you don’t want it all. I want it all. I want victories. I want belts.

Chicago, Holm said, is a “home away from home” for her and, right now, the only plan she has is enjoying it with the friends and family who were there to support her. Now, recovered from a UFC 219 loss to Cyborg, she just wants to take her big win in.

Although up-and-coming contender Ketlen Vieira probably wouldn’t be too happy to hear about it, a meeting between Holm and Nunes isn’t a crazy idea. Sure, Holm didn’t have the brightest of stretches after claiming the 135-pound belt, with four losses in six fights, but it’s important to note that the two most recent defeats were at featherweight. Her most recent bantamweight outing ended in a knockout win over former title challenger Bethe Correia.

Another factor that could sweeten the pot for the fans here is the fact that this would be a fresh matchup. While the two have quite a few opponents in common, from most recent title challenge Raquel Pennington to former champions Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, Nunes and Holm have never before fought.

Every fighter can be beat,” Holm said. “And that’s how I feel. She is very tough, and she’s proven that. She’s run through some girls. She was very dominant in her last performance with a very game – Raquel is a very game fighter. She’s usually a little scrapper. It’s definitely a tough fight, but what am I here for? I don’t want to take the easy route and then at the end of my career think I wish I would have pushed myself a little more.”

This mentality seems to have helped with Anderson, too. Faced with a lengthy striker in the former Invicta FC champion, Holm was smart, showing off both her physical prowess in the handling of a clearly bigger opponent and an on-point wrestling game that annulled whatever offense the Australian UFC debutante had in store.

Despite Holm’s experience, there were questions if Anderson’s power and size would end up just being too much to handle. Clearly, it wasn’t. And, for Holm, a lot of it came down to just making sure that the very awareness didn’t overwhelm her.

Yoel Romero angry with commission: They didn’t give me two hours to cut weight

Yoel Romero missed weight for the second time of his career at yesterday’s UFC 225 weigh-ins, but ‘The Soldier of God’ claims the Illinois athletic commission stopped his weight cut early.

Romero, who missed weight in his previous bout with Luke Rockhold at UFC 221, a fight he won via third-round knockout, originally weighed in at 186 pounds at yesterday’s official weigh-ins and was given an extra two hours to make 185 pounds.

When he hit the scales again, the Cuban came in .2 lbs overweight but claims the commission only gave him one hour to cut the extra weight.

“I needed two hours, and the commission would only give me one,” Romero said in response to the criticism, per MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco. “It was the commission’s decision.”

The fight is still on, but Romero is no longer eligible to win the middleweight title, and the former Olympian will be forced to forfeit 20 percent of his purse to opponent Robert Whittaker.

Romero is understandably frustrated with the commission’s decision to rule the bout a non-title fight and is campaigning to reverse the decision and fight Whittaker, who beat Romero via unanimous decision to win the interim belt last year, for the official middleweight belt. Even if Romero wins, ‘The Reaper’ will still get to keep the 185-pound title as things currently stand.

“We came here to fight for the title,” Romero said after the ceremonial weigh-ins, where he received a chorus of boos from the local crowd “I came here for the title fight. It’s not only a fight for a fight – I want to fight for the title. And the commission… made this mistake.

“We want to fight for the title. That’s what we want. I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

UFC 225: Whittaker vs. Romero 2 takes place later tonight, June 9 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.  READ MORE

UFC 225’s Colby Covington ‘interested’ in fighting ‘syrup-sucking Canadian’ GSP

Colby Covington didn’t drop character before, during, or after his five-round fight with Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 225.

‘Chaos’ beat ‘filthy animal’ ‘RDA’ in last night’s co-main event at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois to take home the interim welterweight title, extending his win streak to six and proving that he has the skills to back up his trash talk.

Shortly after beating dos Anjos via unanimous decision, the wrestling powerhouse called out ‘syrup-sucking Canadian’ Georges St-Pierre in the post-fight interview, claiming that he’s ‘definitely interested’ in a fight with the former welterweight and middleweight champion.

St-Pierre, who is considered the best welterweight of all time, stepped away from the sport in 2013 but returned almost four years later to take on Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 217. ‘Rush’ choked Bisping unconscious in the third round to win the belt and become one of only four multi-weight champions in the promotion’s history, joining the ranks of Randy Couture, B.J. Penn, and Conor McGregor.

Shortly after his win, however, GSP was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and made the decision to vacate the title, and the Canadian fan favorite has left the door open for a return.

While Covington is likely to face official champ Tyron Woodley in a title unification bout, there is the possibility of St-Pierre returning to welterweight in the future. Covington accused ‘T-Wood’ of ducking him and is adamant that his interim title is the ‘real’ belt.

Ex-WWE star CM Punk to make second UFC appearance

Former professional wrestling star CM Punk will make his second appearance in the UFC on June 9 in Chicago.

UFC announced the long-rumored bout on Thursday. Punk, whose birth name is Phil Brooks, will face Mike Jackson in a welterweight fight at UFC 225 at United Center.

Punk (0-1) has been hinting at a UFC return for months. The former WWE wrestler trains out of Milwaukee but lives in Chicago.

Punk, 39, made his mixed martial arts debut at UFC 203 in September 2016. He had no MMA experience when he signed a deal with the UFC in 2014 and was quickly choked out by Mickey Gall in his highly anticipated debut.

Despite initially expressing some doubt about booking Punk in another fight, UFC president Dana White has opted to give him another shot.

Jackson (0-1) was actually a small part of the original Punk experiment. The Houston native fought Gall in February 2016, when Punk suffered an injury that delayed his debut. Had Gall lost, Punk would have likely faced another opponent in his debut, but Gall ended up submitting Jackson in just 45 seconds.

A middleweight title bout between Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero is scheduled to headline the UFC 225 pay-per-view event.

I was a rowdy boy growing up. We would fight all the time. I grew up fighting my brother, who was two years older than me, so there was no escaping it. For the longest time I was his punching bag. I grew up in a tough neighborhood and fighting was just all there was.

Wrestling was a good way for me to let out some energy. I wanted to play football, and my football coach told me if I wanted to be a football player, I should wrestle. That's why I started to wrestle.

Community college was really a place where I started to embody this 'mono-e-mono' competition and really started making a mental game out of competing. Growing up, I was just so much better than everybody else I didn't have to tap into that mental side of things. Now I was going against guys who were just as good as me. I had to really start to bring the mental game and it's when I began to love competing.