Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm discusses her thoughts on Ronda Rousey’s knockout loss to Amanda Nunes, Cris Cyborg’s failed drug test, her upcoming featherweight title fight against Germaine de Randamie and more.

The Former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm said that she knew that Ronda Rousey wasn’t mentally ready for her title fight at UFC 207:

“I was a little worried about her mental game getting in there,” Holm told MMA Fighting in a UFC 208 pre-fight interview. “I know a lot of people said ‘no MMA media, none of that’, because she didn’t want any distractions. Well, I really hate to do all of it, but guess what, that’s what comes with the fight, and if I didn’t do it, I don’t even think I would be ready for the fight.”

“If you can’t even talk about it, if you can’t even be doing the normal thing leading up, I don’t think you’re really ready to get in there and actually fight. If you can’t really talk about it, how are you gonna get in and perform on it?”

“I’m kind of a believer in that. I feel like you have to be able to kind of face it, and sometimes I think if you’re trying to ignore those facts, I feel like the focus really isn’t there. So I was kind of worried if she gets in, is she really gonna be ready to just go, when she hasn’t really had to talk about it or face it or really get into it in that way.”