Albuquerque’s Holly Holm big underdog against Ronda Rousey tonight at UFC 193
This evening at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, Albuquerque’s Holly Holm will look to be just the second native New Mexican to hold UFC gold. The sportsbooks, many of which have her around a 10-to-1 underdog, as well as New Mexico mixed martial arts fight history will not be on her side when she faces undefeated UFC Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (12-0).
Only three native New Mexicans, all Holm Jackson’s-Wink teammates, Diego Sanchez, Carlos Condit and John Dodson have fought for a UFC championship. The three, have a 1-4 combined record in UFC title fights. The only victory came in February of 2012 when Albuquerque’s Carlos Condit defeated Nick Diaz for the interim welterweight title via unanimous decision, a belt he would eventually lose in a unification bout against Georges St. Pierre later that year.
UFC title fights featuring native New Mexicans:
L– 12/12/2009 B.J. Penn def. Diego Sanchez (lightweight title)
W– 2/4/2012 Carlos Condit def. Nick Diaz (interim welterweight title)
L– 11/7/2012 Georges St. Pierre def. Carlos Condit (undisputed welterweight title)
L– 1/26/2013 Demetrious Johnson def. John Dodson (flyweight title)
L– 9/5/2015 Demetrious Johnson def. John Dodson (flyweight title)
TBD- 12/14/2015 Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm (bantamweight title)
TBD- 1/2/2016 Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit (welterweight title)
Holm (9-0) has a tall task ahead of her but victory is not impossible. A win will make her the biggest underdog in UFC history to win a title bout; an achievement currently held by UFC men’s Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw who in May of 2014 at UFC 173 was more than a 7-to-1 under when he easily outclassed and stopped then champion Renan Barão.
For fun, we also asked some of the local media their predictions on tonight’s big fight.
Local media predictions for tonight’s bout:
Brian Oswald – Bleacher Report: Rousey 1st rd. submission
Ed Nuñez – 610AM: Rousey 2nd rd. TKO
Geoff Grammer – ABQ Journal: Rousey 2nd rd. submission
James Lidenmuth – 610AM: Holm 4th rd. TKO
Jorge Hernández – SWFight/Combat Sports Weekly: Rousey 2nd rd. submission
Mika Frankl – CagedMinds.com: Rousey 4th rd. submission
Rick Wright – ABQ Journal: Holm via decision
Tristen Critchfield – Sherdog.com: Rousey via 2nd/3rd rd. submission
Van Tate – KOAT7: Holm via decision
Wayne Dumas – The Fight Scene: Holm 4th rd. TKO
Pick totals: Rousey 6, Holm 4
Win or lose, Holm, and for that matter Rousey, are expected to make history as a UFC-record crowd of 70,000 is expected to be at Etihad Stadium tonight… and to think the UFC was extremely reluctant about bringing on a female division just three years ago.
Enjoy the fight tonight folks!
