Almost before Holly Holm and Ronda Rousey exited the ring in Australia last November from UFC 193, their rematch was being discussed.
Holm later said she had no problem granting Rousey a rematch. But deep down, that's not Holm wanted.
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"Trust me, the last fight was one of the best moments of my life," Holm told Yahoo Sports. "But I don't want to be defined by one fight, I don't want that to be the whole focus of my life."
She acquiesced to the rematch out of fighting etiquette, but when she found out it wouldn't happen for eight months, she wasn't happy about it. She asked for another fight before the rematch, but UFC president Dana White scoffed it off.
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When Rousey backed off the July, 2016 date at UFC 200, Holm got her wish. Though it would've been, and still could be, the biggest payday in Holm's professional career, that wasn't an attraction for her.
"I told myself I would never fight for money or for fame," Holm said. "I would fight for passion.
"This is the next opportunity," Holm said. "My mind doesn't function like, 'If I wait for this, it will be more money.' That's just not how my brain functions. There's never a dollar sign in my mind when I'm thinking about my fighting career. I want the passion."
So don't think for a moment that Holm will have to tell herself to stop living in the past with the Rousey knockout when she steps into the ring next Saturday against Miesha Tate in her first defense of her UFC women's bantamweight championship.
Rousey's been gone from her mind.
"I don't want to be a one-hit wonder," Holm said. "I don't want it to be one performance. I want to show I'm here for a reason. For me, I want to keep going, keep getting better."
Before UFC 193, Rousey said that Holm wouldn't want all the attention and time demands that go with being a champion, and Holm said she enjoyed her fame after her win.
But it has not taken away what has driven her to this point.
"When you start fighting, you start in amateurs, you don't get paid anything," Holm said. "You pay money out, because you're not going to make it back. You have to pay for your camp, you have to pay for your gas, you put miles on your own car, you're paying money out in the beginning. I try to have that same passion I had in the beginning."
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