Why Holly Holm ditched that Celtic song for Led Zeppelin as her UFC walkout music

Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t, but Holly Holm’s octagon entrance last time she fought wasn’t the same. She had a different walkout song in June at UFC Fight Night 111 in Singapore, and it was a pretty big change.

Out with the 1996 track, “The Landlord’s Walk,” by Blair Douglas.

And in with Led Zeppelin’s 1971 classic, “Black Dog.”

But why?

Via MMAFighting.com:

“I guess 2016 was kind of just a rough go of a year,” Holm said. “And I had three losses, and I thought, you know, my dad goes, ‘Maybe you should just get a whole different [song].’ Not that a song makes a difference, but let’s just have a new start, a new beginning. … Why not just pick a new walkout song and get a different thing going here?”

As Holm went about selecting her new tune, she reflected on the fact that much of her family was not going to be able to make it halfway around the world to Singapore Indoor Stadium for the bout, so she wanted to pick a song which would remind her of home and family.

?That’s where Led Zeppelin came in – a band she and her brother listened to quite a bit growing up.

“I started thinking, it was the first fight that both of my brothers haven’t been at in a long time, and they’ve always been my biggest fan since I was young,” Holm said. “We always used to listen to Led Zeppelin on the way to school – Zeppelin or The Beastie Boys. So I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to listen to some Led Zeppelin.’ It was the song we listened to to get pumped up and go out and basically make a mess of things and cause some trouble.”

Trouble is certainly what Holm caused for Bethe Correia that night, en route to a third-round win via knockout to snap a three-fight losing streak.

“Black Dog” is a great song choice, vastly superior to that Celtic song if you ask me. But Holm (11-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) said she doesn’t know if she’ll keep Led Zeppelin for her featherweight title fight against Cris Cyborg (18-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) at next month’s UFC 219 pay-per-view in Las Vegas.

But here’s the thing: Once you make a connection between a three-fight losing streak and your walkout song, and then decide to “get a different thing going here” by choosing a new one, you can’t go back. You just can’t.

And also, how do you go back to that Celtic song after choosing Led Zeppelin? That’s like ordering filet mignon and then after one bite deciding to leave the steakhouse for McDonald’s.

For more on UFC 219, visit the UFC Rumors section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.