Holly Holm left no stone unturned in her return to the boxing ring on Saturday night.
After more than a decade away from the squared circle, the former UFC champion stepped on the eight-ounce gloves for a clash with Yolanda Vega as part of the Paul vs. Chavez Jr. prelims. ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ pitched a shutout, winning every round on all three scorecards and securing a dominant decision victory.
It was an undeniably impressive showing from Holm, especially considering the fact that it was her first boxing bout since 2013. But it came at a cost for the 43-year-old fighter.
“I would just do two minutes, take a minute off, and do two minutes—that’d be the five rounds just for the team,” Holm told reporters, breaking down her grueling training camp during the post-fight press conference. “For the last two weeks of training, I would go in at the end of sparring, and a lot of my really good training partners would be there to help me. They would stay late, and I would do 10 rounds, two rounds each, so they’d be fresh when they came in just to keep the pace up with me.
“I told them, ‘It is different—MMA to boxing.’ One thing is that combos and everything you use, you’re using… I use kicks a lot, so coming back to just boxing, I’m only using my arms. There’s a different conditioning with that. I was always in condition for anything I’ve done, but there still is a different conditioning for just having only your arms—only two weapons. So, I wanted to make sure and be very active in sparring and get that every mid-session.
“I was wearing my 16-ounce gloves every sparring session. I wanted to make sure and get my arms back in boxing shape to where when I got in there, it wasn’t going to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, my arms feel like they weigh 100 pounds each.’ My team was there for me to help me, and just discipline.”
What’s next for Holm remains to be seen, but ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ will have her eyes on the July 11th trilogy bout between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor.
“Get ranked again and then go for the big fight … the Taylor-Serrano fight; those are the top two fighting now,” Holm said while addressing her future in the sport. “Those are the girls I want to fight, the best in the world.”
