Holly Holm won't map out future past UFC 208: 'Every fight should be treated like it's my last fight'

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The UFC’s women’s featherweight title will be on the line in UFC 208’s headliner this Saturday. And that is pretty much the only definite the division has known since its announcement.

Set to face Germaine de Randamie (6-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) to determine whose waist will be the first to carry the newly-created division’s belt, former 135-pound champion Holly Holm (10-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) is one of the most interested parties when it comes to the weight class’ future. And, much like everyone else, she can’t really tell how it’s going to go.

What she knows, however, is that uncertainty tends to follow the new – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think a lot of people were wondering when the 135-pound division came in,” Holm said during a media day ahead of Saturday’s pay-per-view main event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. “And it flourished. And then there was even a while where it was like, ‘Was Ronda (Rousey) ever going to be beatable?’ And now the belt has changed hands three times.

“I mean, that’s why when people ask about me about this fight that can happen in a year, I’m like, ‘You know what can happen in a year?’ It’s a lot that can happen in a year. I just like to see how things pan out, ride the wave.”

Asked whether she has heard directly from fighters who might be interested in joining the roster, she answered a categorical “absolutely.” And, much like we’ve seen happen in the not-so-distant past of the UFC’s women’s bantamweight class, Holm thinks the very opening of a new door should be enough to welcome the talent.

“We’re going to start to see a lot of 145-ers come out,” Holm said. “We’re going to start to see a lot of them get better because they’re going to know it’s attainable, that they have this opportunity that they can grasp onto, so they’re even going to take it more and more seriously.

“Look how many more girls came into the 135-pound division, the top-5 girls are not the same top-5 girls that they were three years, even two years ago. It’s all changed. I think two years ago, people thought, ‘Who is going to be the challenge for these girls?’ There’s not even the same top-5 anymore; it’s because it keeps growing. And who’s to say that’s not going to happen in the 145-pound division? People start to see that, they want to go for it.”

While there hasn’t been any announced new signings to help fill up the new weight class, current bantamweight titleholder Amanda Nunes, for one, has already expressed a desire to go for a second belt in the upper division. Invicta FC’s Megan Anderson, in turn, called out Saturday’s champion-to-be after the win that earned her the all-female promotion’s interim featherweight title.

Not to mention, of course, Cristiane Justino – the world’s leading female featherweight who, in spite of being the initial driving force behind the very creation of the division in the UFC, turned down separate opportunities to become its inaugural champ before being sidelined due to a failed drug test.

Like the future of the weight class, Holm’s own destination is uncertain. Now on a two-fight skid following a title-costing loss to Miesha Tate and a unanimous decision setback to Valentina Shevchenko, Holm won’t discard going back-and-forth between divisions – but won’t commit to anything either.

“I think it just depends on the fight,” Holm said. “I think it depends on just one fight at a time. I can do every other one as far as weight is concerned. That’s not it, but it would just be – it turns on to every fight should be treated like it’s my last fight because I’m never promised another day, another fight. You never know what’s going to happen.

“So really I’m just focused on this one. I don’t really want to think – I don’t want to map out anything in the future because you really can’t. It’s a very unpredictable sport.”

If she wins on Saturday, Holm will make history as the first woman in the UFC to earn titles in two different divisions. She’s also the headliner for the third time in her five-fight octagon career – which includes that pretty tremendous occasion when she shocked the world by beating then-unbeatable Rousey.

So how does she deal with seeing her face so prominently on display?

“I try to keep it simple in my mind that this is just another fight,” Holm said. “I don’t want to look at that billboard and think that it’s bigger than myself and let it get too much of me emotionally. It’s still myself and one other person in the octagon.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s headlining or not. It doesn’t matter if it’s first or last fight of the night. It’s just her and I, and that’s what it comes down to, so I have to make the most of it. I don’t want to look at the billboard and put it in a perspective I can’t grasp. I want to be able to just keep it real.”

To hear more from Holm, check out the video above.

And for more on UFC 208, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.