Holly Holm: 'I hurt for her that she feels that way because that's a very low place'

The UFC champion was responding to Ronda Rousey’s interview on The Ellen Show yesterday.

UFC WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT champion Holly Holm has expressed her sympathy for Ronda Rousey following yesterday’s emotional interview on The Ellen Show.

Rousey admitted that she briefly considered taking her own life in the immediate aftermath of her shock second-round KO defeat to Holm at UFC 193 in November.

The result gave Holm the title, which she’ll defend on 5 March against Miesha Tate. Rousey is expected to face the winner later this year.

“There’s a lot of things around that. When I heard that she said that, for me it’s one of those things that’s like: How do I respond to that?” Holm said at a press conference in her hometown of Albuquerque when asked about Rousey’s comments, Sherdog reports.

“I don’t want to say I’m sorry because I think on a competitive level for me, if somebody was to say they’re sorry after [beating me], it’s like: No, I’m a competitor, I’m not a charity case.

“I feel like that’s something where the best thing is for me not to say anything at all. I don’t want to say that I’m glad that she felt that way and I don’t want to say: Oh I’m so sorry. It’s something I think that you have to dig through on your own. In the long run, she’ll be stronger mentally from it.”

Holm added: “I hurt for her that she feels that way because that’s a very low place. I did have a lot of help around me to where I did not feel that way,” Holm said, referring to her last taste of defeat — a KO loss against Anne Sophie Mattis during her boxing career, which she later avenged.

“People would say: Oh it’s not the end of the world. I was like: Well that’s exactly what it feels like, the end of the world.”

Holm’s title defence against Miesha Tate will be the curtain-raiser for Conor McGregor’s lightweight title bout against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196 in 17 days’ time.

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