Holly Holm
Before her MMA career kicked off, ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ Holly Holm was considered to be one of the top-10 female boxers of all-time, having earned 18 title-defenses across multiple weight categories, in addition to being a two-time Ring Magazine ‘Female Boxer Of The Year.’
However, though Holm would put together an impressive 33-2-3 run during that time, it wasn’t all plain sailing, and in 2011 she suffered one of the most devastating knockouts in the history of women’s boxing against Anne Sophie Mathis.
The fight saw both women eating big shots, but Mathis was known to be one of the heaviest hitters in female boxing and by the mid-way point in the fight Holm was starting to get badly beaten up.
There was no quit in Holm though, but in seventh round things started to get completely out of hand, to the extent that after a three-piece combo from Mathis, she fell backwards and was only being held up by the fact the rope was stuck under her armpit while her opponent continued to tee off on her.
Remarkably, after being untangled from the rope, the referee let the clearly spent Holm continue and Mathis proceeded to land an uppercut followed by a right hook that knocked her unconscious, with her limp body left sprawled across the bottom rope.
It’s a true testament to Holm’s character that she would go on to avenge that loss in a rematch just six months later by unanimous decision and then won a further two fights before moving full-time to MMA and eventually winning the UFC bantamweight title.
