This past Friday, Holly Holm was packing her things for what she believed would be a leisurely trip to Cleveland to support her friend and wrestling coach Israel Martinez’s new venture, Real American Freestyle. She envisioned having a beer and a burger and a few laughs in the Rock and Roll Capital of the World when her phone rang.
“I got a call from Izzy,” she says. “I was on the other line, and so he texted me saying, ‘Hey, Kennedy’s out — you want to wrestle tomorrow?’”
Advertisement
Kennedy is Kennedy Blades, the 21-year-old University of Iowa wrestler who took home a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Blades was slated to face Alejandra Rivera at the Wolstein Center in the inaugural RAF event, which is what Martinez — along with Eric Bischoff, Dan Bronstein and the late Hulk Hogan — had been working on for the past few months.
“The thing is with Izzy, he knows me, and I know him, and he knows that I’m OK with a little wildness in my life. And I also know that when he’s asking something like that, he maybe starts it as a joke, but he is serious.”
As she finished packing her bag, Holm had the exhilarating feeling that — if Martinez was serious — she might just be gonzo enough to do it. The kind of temptation where it hadn’t yet sunk in but was already luring her to greater adventure. She needed a moment to process the sharp adjustment in mental focus that would be required. She needed to know how serious she was if he was serious, especially because she has never really competed strictly in wrestling competition.
Her boxing career led to the cages of MMA, which led back to the ring, which led to … the mats? It was a lot to digest on the fly.
Advertisement
“I was like, ‘Lemme call you right back,’” she says.
“I was already going to go to the event anyway. I was already booked, I was going to go watch, I was excited for it. So, I was like, ‘Well, I’m coming regardless,’ and I was packing my stuff to fly out, and I was like, ‘Well, might as well throw in my wrestling shoes, because you never know.’”
Thus began a whirlwind weekend in what has become a certifiably whirlwind year for the 43-year-old Holm, who is still most famous in the realm of combat sports for knocking out Ronda Rousey nearly 10 years ago.
It started when she asked for her release from the UFC back in the early weeks of January, freeing her from the organization in which she gave the sport of MMA its Buster Douglas moment at UFC 193. The UFC granted her request. She then found herself on the raft of MMA fighters who got essentially catfished by the GFL, a stillborn MMA league that went so far as to hold a draft to fill its roster. (Holm, who lives in Albuquerque, was selected by the New York team.)
Advertisement
Midway through 2025, Holm, who was already a decorated boxing champion by the time she arrived to MMA, went back to the ring after a dozen years away. She beat Yolanda Vega by unanimous decision this past June on a Jake Paul undercard, which set up what she hopes will be a title fight later this year against Katie Taylor. Yet while she waits for things to finalize, the singlet donned as spontaneously as a decision might to hit the pool.
“I got there on Friday night, the night before the event, and we were talking in the hotel lobby and I was like, ‘Izzy, I haven’t wrestled in seven months, but if I do this, I need to at least wrestle. Is this for real? Is [Rivera] good with it? Does she want to take it?’ I had to really think about it.”
Martinez is the one who gave Holm her wrestling scaffolding. When she first came to MMA, she was, by her own admission, “completely green” as a wrestler, yet Martinez worked with her for a long time to give her a base. Good enough to jump in against Rivera, a 24-year-old Mexican wrestler who has dedicated her life to the sport?
“In the middle of all this — of me getting on the plane and then landing in Ohio — I messaged my manager and wanted to know if my contract right now that I have with Most Valuable Promotions would allow me to wrestle,” she says. “So he was working on that while I was flying out. And they were fine with me having a one-time thing, not signing for multiple things with someone else, but they were fine with me wrestling.
Advertisement
“Once I found that out, then I was like, ‘OK, I know it can happen now, but I need to see what my heart feels.’ And I was like, ‘I really want to do it. If I don’t, I’m going to regret it later and be like, why didn’t I just try?’”
And so it happened. No regrets. Holm stepped up on ridiculously short notice to face Rivera, a surprise cameo for RAF that caught so many in the combat world off guard. Not only that, but Holm started strong in the match, going up 4-0 and nearly getting a pin early on.
“I really went out there to win,” she says. “I wasn’t going out there just to say I did it. I wanted to win. And I actually had talked to my head coach, my stand-up coach, Mike Winkeljohn, and I told him, I don’t know coach … this might sound wild, but I think I can catch her with a cow catcher.”
Holm can smile about it less than 72 hours later.
Advertisement
“That’s exactly what I did in the first round. And then he texted me, ‘Well, you did say that you were going to catch her with that.’ But I got a little reckless after the first takedown. I wanted to get another one. And then I ran myself into giving up four points just to get two.”
Holm ended up losing the match, 9-7, a respectable showing, especially given the absurdity of the circumstances. By stepping in like that she kicked up a discussion about what a G she is for staying in the kind of shape to make it possible, in a discipline which is perhaps third or fourth down the line in the hierarchy of her expertise.
Boxing has its Taylors and Clarissa Shieldses and Laila Alis, and MMA has Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harrison (each of whom Holm has fought). The GOAT conversation, when zeroed into a specific arena, might not include the ever-game Holly Holm.
But any GOAT talk surrounding women in combat sports as a whole? “The Preacher’s Daughter” might be the gold standard. Championships in two sports, including one of the most iconic knockouts in MMA history, plus a foray into wrestling — those credentials are as subtle as they are stubborn.
Holly Holm decisively beat Yolanda Vega in June, earning a win in her first boxing match in 12 years.
(Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy via Getty Images)
“I’m proud of what I’ve done in my life, and I’m proud that I’ve been able to have moments in boxing that were huge. Maybe not as worldwide known, because the women’s boxing world wasn’t as big when I was doing it, but I had shocking moments in boxing.”
Advertisement
Most notably her victory over Christy Martin, a pioneer in the women’s ranks who appeared on the cover of “Sports Illustrated” and fought on the undercard of a Mike Tyson event. Martin had more than 40 pro boxing fights when a then 23-year-old Holm faced her with just a dozen bouts to her name back in 2005.
“Everybody was like, what are you doing taking this fight at 12 fights in?” Holm says. “[Martin] has all this experience, and the odds were crazy that she was going to beat me and knock me out, whatever. People were like, ‘Do you think you’re ready for the fight?’ And I got so angry in some of the interviews. I was like, ‘Well, I signed the contract, didn’t I?’ I mean, obviously I think I can do it. Why would I sign the contract?’”
Every 10 years, Holm has a moment. In 2005, it was Martin. In 2015, it was Rousey. Remember that setup? It was very similar. The fight was announced by Rousey on “Good Morning America,” of all places, and everybody thought Holm was too inexperienced to stand a chance. Vegas installed her as a nearly 10-to-1 underdog.
It wasn’t unlike the Martin fight from a decade earlier. The outcomes were similar, too.
Advertisement
“That was one of the moments that … the [Martin] fight was one of the easiest fights I ever had,” she says. “And I don’t mean that disrespectfully, I was just better. But the expectation and the anxiety and the pressure leading up to the fight was huge, even though maybe the whole world didn’t know about it.
“And then after that, that moment helped me face the next moment that I had to face adversity, which helped me when I’m fighting for the title with the UFC, which helped me after I lost the title. And everybody’s doubting me to be able to reach inside me and follow what I feel and not just listen to everyone else. It can go both ways.”
Should she complete the 10-year cycle again by reclaiming a boxing title to close out one of the wildest years of her competitive life? Well, it would go down as one of the most accomplished careers in combat sports.
That is the larger view of a career that has taken many twists and turns along the way. If you want to glimpse the smaller view, to tell you everything you want to know down to the granular details of what kind of competitor she is, look no further than this weekend when Holm answered the call.
She didn’t know for sure what would happen in Cleveland when she boarded the plane, but it’s good thing she brought her wrestling shoes.
