Originally scheduled to make her UFC debut against Raquel Pennington at UFC 181 on December 6 before being forced out of the bout due to injury, Holly Holm will now enter the Octagon for the first time on Saturday, February 28, as she faces Pennington at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles.
Albuquerque's Holm is a former world champion and pound-for-pound great in boxing who compiled a 33-2-3 record before moving to MMA in 2011. Unbeaten in seven pro bouts with six wins by knockout, the Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA product will have a tough test in front of her in the form of Colorado's "Rocky" Pennington, a hard-nosed striker who owns UFC wins over Roxanne Modafferi and Ashlee Evans-Smith. At UFC 181 earlier this month, Pennington scored one of the best submission wins of 2014, putting Evans-Smith to sleep just before the end of the first round.
Now ranked 12th in the bantamweight division, Pennington hopes to keep that spot intact against the number 14-ranked Holm.
"The Preacher's Daughter" has her sights set on history though.
“When I first started doing MMA, people asked me what my goal was in this, and my goal is to be the first female that has titles in both MMA and boxing because nobody’s done that,” Holm said after signing with the UFC in July. “And it’s totally doable, and that’s my plan.”
