Holly Holm says she has no plans to retire anytime soon.
Holm has not fought since she defeated Irene Aldana on Fight Island in October of 2020 and since then, she has been dealing with injuries. She was booked to fight Julianna Pena in May 2021 and Norma Dumont last October but she was forced out of both bouts due to injury which was frustrating for Holm.
“I was so close to getting there. It’s like one thing after another,” Holm told MMA Fighting. “It’s one of those times you have to sit back and say ‘OK, this is where my journey’s been’ and you make the most of it and just move forward from here. There’s nothing I can really do about it. We’re just going forward now. I had to have surgery. It was a piece of bone fragment floating around up there. They had to clean up a few things but I did have to have surgery. But we’re up and we’re cranking and we’re pushing forward.”
Given she hasn’t fought since October 2020, Holm has been asked quite a bit if she is retired. However, she is booked to face Ketlen Vieira on May 21 and Holm makes it clear she is not retired.
“I’m definitely super frustrated, especially when people are like ‘are you retired?’” Holm said. “I’m like no! Not retired! But I can see them maybe thinking that because they haven’t seen me fight. I want to show them what I’ve got and especially because my last fight, I got to show even more of my game from what had been seen before. I get excited cause I want to show more and show more and I keep running into these barriers. It’s definitely frustrating.
“I feel myself getting anxiety sometimes cause it’s like you feel like you want to go and you can. You feel like you’ve got to go and you want to go and you cant,” Holm continued. “Then you start overthinking things. I’ve learned I just have to take it day-by-day or I’m going to worry myself doing nothing. Not even moving forward. I always want to move forward so I try to stay as positive as I can.”
Holly Holm says she still feels like she can be UFC champion again and she plans on proving that against Vieira next month.
