Holly Holm – Ronda Rousey II Not Next For New Bantamweight Champ

A day before the announcement about Ronda Rousey hosting “Saturday Night Live” on January 23, the reigning UFC women’s bantamweight champion questioned the former champion’s willingness to step back into the ring for a rematch with Holm, according to mmafighting.com.

Holm, 34, knocked out Rousey (12-1) in the second round of a 135-pound championship fight on November 14, handing Rousey her first loss.

White told the Los Angeles Times last month that Rousey would be next for Holm, with a date cleared for July 9 in Las Vegas.

But this week, Holm signed a multi-fight, multimillion-dollar contract extension with the UFC, and an official close to those talks said an interim fight for Holm was possible.

Rousey has parlayed her star status into a number of movie roles, including “Furious 7” and “Entourage” and will be seen next in “Road House”.

Tate is riding a four fight win streak and was actually promised a title shot against Rousey before the UFC opted to place Holm in the fight instead. With Holm pulling off the massive upset in Australia, the pipeline to the title has seemingly re-opened for Tate.

Rousey, of course, has made her name as a tenacious fighter providing young girls (and boys) with a tremendous role model who refutes hetero-normative gender stereotypes. Also, Holm announced on The MMA Hour that she expects to make an announcement about her next fight in the coming days. “Ronda has dedicated the last three-plus years to working hard here”. Should Holm wait to defend her title against Rousey at UFC 200?