Before signing her, Dana White seriously underestimated how good Holly Holm is at MMA.
Before Ronda Rousey took the sport by storm, Gina Carano was undoubtedly the biggest female star in MMA.
The former Strikeforce contender walked away from the sport after suffering her first defeat at the heavy hands of Cyborg in 2009, but when the UFC started running out of people to face Rousey, she was heavily linked with signing for the UFC. Dana White even claimed before UFC Dublin in 2014, that they were aiming to sign her the week after the event.
Carano explained to Fox Sports that he had a meeting with Uncle Dana in 2014, during which she noticed he kept a list of contenders in his office.
“I remember talking to Dana White last year sometime in his office, he had the five top contenders in each weight class written on his office windows — male and female — and there were a couple names I couldn’t for the life of me figure out, why were not written down.”
https://twitter.com/allelbows/status/665772900796903425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Carano noticed one notable absentee from the list of women’s bantamweight contenders, the woman who would eventually dethrone Rousey with that stunning head kick KO. However, when she brought up Holm’s name, she claims White laughed off her contender status.
“Holly is the only one I mentioned because I knew they were in talks of negotiating with her and after seeing how talented she was and the most incredible work ethic.”
“I felt it was important to mention she is legit and should be up there. He laughed and blew it off mentioning something about her ground game but then again he did sign her not long after that so I think he knew. She seems like she deserved that in her life and career.”
RT: How @_HOLLYHOLM KO'ed @RondaRousey in #UFC193 pic.twitter.com/WR1RaS96B0
— Teddy ⚡️ $BUBBLE (@iCrazyTeddy) November 15, 2015
Well, she certainly proved him wrong anyway.
