Holly Holm pulled off the biggest upset in UFC history with her second-round knockout of Ronda Rouseyat UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia. Much has been reported about Holm's boxing background and her transition to MMA.
But other than the woman who shocked the MMA world, who is Holly Holm? Here are 10 facts about the new women's bantamweight champion.
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| Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) |
1. Holly was born Oct. 17, 1981, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the youngest of three children to Roger Holm and Tammy Bredy (shown below), who have since been divorced. Holly has two older brothers, Brian and Weston.
2. Her nickname -- "The Preacher's Daughter" -- is apropos because she is a preacher's daughter. Her father, Roger, preaches each Sunday at Edgewood Church of Christ in Albuquerque. Before that he preached at Bosque Farms Church of Christ for 18 years.
3. Holly graduated in 2000 from Manzano High School in Albuquerque, where she tried gymnastics, soccer, swimming and diving.
4. Holly got into fighting through aerobics. Her aerobics instructor was Mike Winkeljohn, who also coached kickboxing. She attended one of Winkeljohn's kickboxing classes, and Winkeljohn immediately saw her potential. She won a national amateur kickboxing championship in 2001 before launching her professional fighting career in 2002. Winkeljohn still trains Holm.
5. Holly was Ring Magazine's Female Fighter of the Year in 2005 and 2006, has won boxing titles in three weight classes and fought only three of her 38 professional boxing matches outside of New Mexico.
6. She suffered a brutal knockout defeat against Anne Sophie Mathis on Dec. 2, 2011. But she came back seven months later and beat Mathis by unanimous decision to regain her IBA welterweight title.
7. She trains at Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque with the likes of Jon Jones, Carlos Conditand Andrei Arlovski.
8. She married Jeff Kirkpatrick on April 27, 2012, in Cancun. Kirkpatrick is the vice president of operations for AAA Roofing Co. in Albuquerque.
9. Outside of the gym, Holly enjoys snowboarding, sewing, shopping, baking cookies and pies, reading her Bible, chewing gum and spending time with her cat, Buster.
10. Holly likes to eat lunch at Cheese and Coffee, a lunch shop in Albuquerque, where she orders the Chelsea sandwich (turkey, jack cheese, avocado and green chile), a side of Greek salad and a Diet Coke, which she drinks every day.
