Holly Holm has graced the cover of this December’s issue of Fighter’s Only magazine, but the former boxing champion still has not made it to the cover of The Ring. Holm, age 34, the current UFC Female Bantamweight Champion, was a three-division boxing champion and sported a record of 33-2-3 before making the transition to MMA. She won Ring’s female boxer of the year honor twice a decade ago. But unlike the former champion Ronda Rousey, Holm has yet to grace the cover of the so-called Bible of Boxing. Rousey was featured cover of The Ring in October, which was criticized by some in the boxing community since she had never boxed professionally.
Boxing promoter Lou DiBella the magazine, not only for putting Rousey on the cover, but ignoring Holm when she been on the best pound for pound female boxers in the world. “If I was Ring Magazine, maybe I would have put Holly Holm on the cover before she won,” DiBella said at the post-fight press conference Saturday night following an event headlined by Daniel Jacobs and Peter Quillin at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.”And talked about her story and maybe why she had a chance and what she accomplished in boxing that they didn’t pay attention to for her whole career.” Dibella is currently promotes middleweight boxing champion Danny Jacobs and has promoted other notable champions such as Bernard Hopkins and Sergio Martinez in the past. DiBella also said he won money betting on Holm, because of the physical advantages Holm had over Rousey.
Holm knocked out Rousey in the second round with a head kick to win the UFC women’s bantamweight title at UFC 193 last November in Australia to become the new UFC champion. Holm came in as a 7-1 underdog against Rousey, 28, had dispatched each of her last three opponents in the first round.
Rousey’s main strength is her grappling due to being a former Olympic bronze medalist in Judo, but has trained hard in boxing for the past five years with her striking coach Edmond Tarverdyan at Glendale Fighting Club in Los Angeles. Oscar De La Hoya, who’s company Golden Boy Enterprises owns The Ring, said in October that he be open to helping Rousey transition from MMA to boxing if given the chance. But will De La Hoya’s magazine finally give Holm her recognition for making the transition?