At a press conference held today, Holly Holm announced that she will be retiring from boxing in order to devote all her efforts going forward to an MMA career. The announcement came at a media luncheon held at the Albuquerque International Airport.
Holm is scheduled to face Mary McGee on May 11, in a bout she says will be her last as a professional boxer.
“I sleep good at night,” an emotional Holm said, “knowing that I’ve challenged myself over my career rather than just take what’s supposed to be easy.
“… I feel like my passion’s just going to MMA.”
Back in 2011, Holm made her MMA debut, when she knocked out Christina Domke in the second round. Since then, she has added a couple more knockouts to her record, amassing a 3-0 record. Her last victory took place in February as part of a Bellator card. It was perhaps in that fight she saw the writing on the wall, as her fight caused her to trend worldwide on Twitter, despite her fight not even being televised. This is something she had never been able to do as a boxer.
For her MMA training, she has been working with Mike Winklejohn, who is part of the Jackson’s-Winklejohn’s gym that is so prominent in MMA. There she rubs elbows with some of the biggest names in MMA, including Jon Jones, Carlos Condit, and women fighters Julie Kedzie and new Invicta FC atomweight champion, Michelle Waterson.
Her lengthy career as a boxer will conclude with her 24th title fight in a city where most of her fights took place, in Albequerque, New Mexico. In just her 11th fight as a pro, she captured her first title, when she beat Terri Blair for the IBA light welterweight belt. Following that win, she would go on to win a total of five different belts in both the light welterweight and welterweight divisions.
Some of the notable achievements of her career were victories over Mia St. John, Christy Martin, as well as gaining revenge after suffering a brutal knockout to Anne Sophie Mathis. However, many criticize her for failing to come to an agreement to fight the other top fighter in her weight class, Cecilia Braekhus.
