Holly Holm, Ronda Rousey Update: 5 Facts About UFC Champion’s Next Opponent

UFC champion Ronda Rousey is one of the most recognizable female athletes in the world, but what about her opponent, Holly Holms? The undefeated star announced she would take on Holm as her next advisory in the octagon, but people aren’t as familiar with Holm as they are with Rousey. Here are five quick facts to know about Holm, courtesy of Sporting News.

1. Holm started out as a kickboxer. She started her career in sports after she took an aerobics class in 2000. After doing well in kickboxing, she competed in her first professional boxing match in 2002 and defeated Martha Deitchman by third round TKO.

2. She had her first mixed martial arts (MMA) fight in 2011 . She defeated Christina Domke by second round TKO. It wasn’t until July 2014 that she signed with UFC and fans hoped she would have a chance to fight Rousey.

3. Holm is undefeated in the UFC with nine career fights. She’s an inch taller than Rousey at 5-foot 8-inches and has a 70-inch reach, which is four more inches than Rousey.

4. She’s taken. Holm married husband Jeff Kirkpatrick in 2012. She posts about him on Instagram and shared a picture from their vacation in San Diego last month. “Dinner with my love on Coronado island,” she captioned the sunset photo.

5. She’s a daddy’s girl. A day before Rousey announced they would fight each other the second day of the New Year, Holm shared an Instagram picture of her father after she “forced” him to get a pedicure. “I can't say this country man minded it! Love my pop,” she wrote Thursday.

Details about the Jan. 2, 2016 fight, like the tickets, venue and undercard fights have not been revealed. Rousey, who beats most of her opponents in 90 seconds or less, said Holms will be a different type of fighter.

“She's not the average chick that I fight. She's the best striker I've ever fought, and striking is something I learned much later in my career. So I don't ever expect fights to be easy and fast,” Rousey said on GMA Friday. “No one knows exactly how the fights are going to go, and that's why everybody buys them."

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