Five possible fights for Holly Holm before she faces Ronda Rousey

Five possible fights for Holly Holm before she faces Ronda Rousey

by Andreas Georgiou - @AGeorgiouMMA

Holly Holm - Credit BellatorMMA

After the announcement from Dana White's official twitter account that the UFC have signed Holly Holm, MMA fans took a sigh of relief that the highly anticipated former boxing world champion is finally making her way to the big stage.

The announcement came the same day as the UFC released the entire Invicta FC library on their Fight Pass streaming service, as well as announcing their next event for September 6th.

Holm has impressed many of those watching her cage side, racking up an undefeated seven fight win streak, including a Bantamweight championship win over Juliana Werner at Legacy FC 30.

With Holm's UFC debut imminent, here are five possible challengers for the 32 year-old fighter.

5. Germaine de Randamie - Rank #12

Nothing against de Randamie, she is a good fighter, however if the UFC are looking to safeguard Holm then this is a winnable fight for her. You could argue that de Randamie and Holm have similar styles of fighting, both are prominently stand-up fighters but her dangerous kicks could be a problem for Holm. If Holm uses her ability to sit inside the pocket and counter strike, then it should be a definitive win for "Hottie" Holm. 

4. Liz Carmouche - Rank #7

It has come to realisation that Liz Carmouche is clearly the gateway of the Bantamweight division, if Uncle Dana and Lorenzo Fertitta want to see if someone is ready for the next challenge, they put them through Carmouche. Girl-Rilla's very good wrestling ability would definitely be the best that Holm has fought against thus far, and her granite chin combined with her determination would serve as a problem for Holm should she be looking to knock Carmouche out. 

3.  Jessica Andrade - Rank #9

One could argue that at the young age of 22, Andrade is one of the brightest talents in the division. Her well rounded style of BJJ, muay-thai and kickboxing is something to be feared by many, and could hold the key to stopping Holm. Everyone knows how good of a striker Holm is, however Andrade has only ever been stopped by strikes twice in her career. Her prolific submission game has seen her stop five of her opponents by submission. She loves looking for that jumping guillotine, which could be a problem for Holm who tends to fight aggressively. 

2. Sarah Kaufman - Rank #5

The 28 year-old fighter is arguably has the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the women's division. Despite losing to Ronda Rousey back in 2012, Kaufman is yet to get her rematch, and is on a collision course with the judo specialist after two wins over Leslie Smith. Her ground game could be tough for Holm, whom we haven't seen much off against a true BJJ specialist, however Kaufman's arguable weaker stand-up game is where Holm will look to dominate.

1. Jessica Eye - Rank #6

If the UFC really want to give Holm that quick push to set up a fight with Rousey, then who better than for her to fight the highly touted Jessica Eye. "Evil" Eye is coming off a close split decision loss to Alexis Davis at UFC 170, and although she lost that fight Eye did herself justice as a future contender. Her gruelling, tiring style of fighting could be a problem for Holm should the fight go three rounds, and her decent ability on the ground could prove costly for Holm.

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ufc 170 Results: Alexis Davis potentially puts herself next in line for the 135lb title fight

UFC 170 Results: Davis defeats Eye by Split Decision

by Ben Heather @benheather

This battle between two of the best 135lb women in the UFC could decide who will be the next contender for the women's bantamweight title which will be contested later tonight. Only time will tell who will be the champion later but if Ronda Rousey wins I see the winner from this fight being the next in line.

Round 1
Davis starts the round with some leg kicks always targeting the left leg of Jessica Eye. It doesn't take long before Davis locks in a nice Thai clinch and lands a couple of knees to the body and thighs in the clinch.
Just over a minute in to the fight Davis is mixing up her kicks and lands a front kick to the head but then the fight gets clinched against the cage where it stays until the ref steps in to break the women up. Davis goes back to working the left leg before moving up to the body. The fight returns to being clinched against the cage and this time it is Eye who has her back against the cage. The fight returns to the middle and Davis gets the takedown with ease and has 30 seconds left to work on the floor in half guard but can't find any space to lock in a submission as the round ends. A very close round which I believe Davis may have stolen with the late takedown.

Round 2
Round 2 starts the same way as the first as Davis comes out with some leg kicks, still targeting the left leg of Jessica Eye. Just after the minute mark of the round Davis catches a kick and takes Eye down landing in half guard. Davis is controlling the fight on the ground doing enough to keep the fight down without doing any real damage. However, with 90 seconds left it looks like Eye was giving up her back to prevent the body attacks from Davis but Davis keeps her in half guard. With 20 seconds left Davis lands some big hammer fists to the head and Eye clearly had no answer for Davis on the ground. The first round may have been close but the second was very one sided with Davis controlling 4 minutes of the round on the floor.

Round 3
Again as every round has started Davis lands more leg kicks but now Eye begins to catch the kicks but cant find any counters. With 3 minutes of the fight left Eye catches Davis with a left hook when Davis was going for more leg strikes. At the half way point Davis lands a big body shot but nothing more comes from it. As both women exchange on the feet its Eye who is landing the harder strikes with 90 seconds left. Now Eye is trying to give Davis a taste of her own medicine by working her legs. The remainder of the fight sees both women picking there punches but no hard punches are landed. I think Eye won the last and certainly by keeping the fight standing had a much better round but it was too little to late in my opinion.

The judges agree and score the fight 29-28 Eye, 29-28 Davis and 29-28 Davis. It goes in to the books as a split decision victory for Alexis Davis and the crowd react with some boos which I don't understand as to me it was clearly 29-28 to Davis.

Davis could have just booked herself a date with the winner of the main event tonight, only time will tell but if not she is doing a good job at clearing out some of the other contenders to the belt.