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(APR 8) We caught Holly “Hottie” Holm on
her home phone in Albuquerque, N.M. one afternoon early in April.
The 26 year-old Holm, (21-1-2, 6 KO’s) holds the women’s
welterweight title for the WBC, WBA, WIBA and IFBA, was thinking
about the June 13 pay per
view show in which she is scheduled to encounter Mary Jo Sanders
for the IFBA light middleweight tile. At this moment, however, she
was holding a paint brush.
-----So, what are you painting? Your house or a picture?
HH---I’m remodeling my bathroom and the hallway. Actually my dad
helps me a little bit but we did the tiling and everything. I did
the whole tiling on the floor so we’ll see what happens. If it
cracks we’ll know why.
---When we last spoke you had bought this house with your boxing
earnings and were sharing it with your brother.
HH—He moved out. My boyfriend pretty much lives with me now.
---Have you started serious training for this June 13 show?
HH—I wouldn’t say serious training. We’re working on a lot of
techniques. I run every day any way. I work out all the time, so
much that I don’t want to pick it up too soon as far as my hundred
percent full-blown training.
---So you work out every day but you’re not sparring?
HH---I’m not sparring. I run about five days a week and I do
aerobics about three days a week. So it’s a full schedule. It’s
probably what a lot of girls do anyway. But when I get to the last
six weeks before a fight, five days a week I’m doing really intense
full network with Mr. Winklejohn. Right now I’m only doing that
about once a week but I’m working on a fight plan and techniques and
stuff like that.
---Have you seen Mary Jo Sanders fight?
HH—I have seen fight tapes. I think I only have two of them. I got
them when I was training for Chevelle Hallback. I got a copy to
train for Chevelle Hallback but it just happened to be a fight with
Mary Jo. Actually she’s the one who gave the fight tape to me. I
have a couple. I haven’t really sat down and studied them now that
she’s the opponent ahead of me. But I have watched her and I will
sit down and focus on them and focus on just her while I’m watching
rather than the other opponent.
-------But you’re familiar with Mary Jo Sanders as a fighter. You’ve
seen her fight before. So what do you think will be your challenges
in meeting her.
HH—I think she’s really stronger than a lot of girls I’ve fought.
She’s taller, but she’s still an inch shorter than me so I’m not too
worried about that. She’s got footwork. She’s got a skilled
traditional boxing style. She throws straight punches. She uses her
jab, uses it to set up things. So in a lot of ways she’s just really
well rounded. So we’re just going to train for that. We’re going to
train for straight punches. Like if you look at her compared with
Chevelle Hallback, Chevelle Hallback throws little loopers and
crouches down real low. They’re a lot different. So you fight them
differently. So you work on a game plan for a more straight,
traditional fighter rather than like somebody who is a wild fighter.
----What is the contract weight for the fight?
HH---154.
---That’s pretty heavy for you. You’ve been fighting consistently at
140 or 145 pounds.
HH—Yeah. I’ve only fought one time at 154 and right now I’m walking
around at 153. I won’t gain any more weight for the fight., because
if I did it would not be good weight. I don’t want to be slow or
sluggish. Being three pounds heavier but feeling sluggish is just
not worth it.
-----But Mary Jo has been fighting pretty consistently recently at
160, so she’s coming down.
HH--- Yes. A lot of her fights have been at 147 so I don’t think
it’s going to be a real hard cut for her. But I know she’s heavier
than 154 right now. Otherwise we probably would have set the fight
for 147. I think she wants to try and stay big and strong and use
that to her advantage. Which is fine. I train with a lot of big male
fighters and I’m used to them pushing me around. I’m used to their
strength. So, I could be putting my foot in my mouth, but I’m really
not worried about the weight part of it. I’m a strong fighter. I
have a lot of strength in me and I don’t see that as one of the huge
problems.
---What do you see as your advantages in meeting Mary Jo?
HH—She’s a more well-rounded fighter. I’ve never been in the ring
with someone who has all of her skills. I’ve been in with maybe one
that has footwork, one fighter that has power, maybe one fighter
I’ve fought has speed. And she has all these things. But I also
think the same for me. She’s never fought anybody like my style
either. I don’t throw wild punches either, and she’s going to be
training differently for me as well. I do have a lot of really good
sparring partners who have a style like that. The sparring might be
an advantage. I think I’ll be prepared to fight, I know that I have
a lot of sparring partners and I know a lot of other training camps
don’t have that. I’ve got tons. Every Tuesday and Thursday night we
have about thirty-five people and you just rotate. You just grab a
new person every round. I have a lot of sparring and I have a lot of
people who can mimic her style for me. And that’s a benefit for me.
---What about the fact that you’re a Southpaw?
HH---She’s been around the game long enough and she’s undefeated,
and she has fought Southpaws before. Any trick a Southpaw has for a
righty, an orthodox fighter has for a Southpaw. It’s all the same
game. Your angling is the same. You want to take each others’ back.
I am the one usually fighting an orthodox fighter, so I’m more used
to that. But guaranteed she’s going to find some lefty sparring
partners so I think she’ll be prepared for it. I expect her to be
very prepared for the fight and for anything I can throw at her, but
that’s just why I’m going to train a hundred times harder than I
have before.
----This is a big event, headlining on an all female pay per view
show. Are you excited about that?
HH---Yeah, I’m excited if it’s successful. If a lot of people buy it
then I’m excited. I want to fight no matter what. I guess as far as
the promotion goes I want everybody to be successful. I want my
promoter to be happy when it’s over, and I want pay per view to be
happy to where they’ll ask us back. So I want it to be successful.
But right now I’m more focused on the fight, because once you get in
the ring and you have that opponent in front of you, it doesn’t
matter what cameras are there or what crowd is there, you still have
to fight that person no matter what. That’s what I’m focused on. If
it is a success I’ll be really happy. I just hope it’s not something
that isn’t successful.
---I‘ve heard that you’ve actually had some experience with mixed
martial arts. Is that true?
HH---Yes. That’s all I did before I turned to pro boxing. That’s all
I did was kick boxing as an amateur. And I actually had some
professional kick boxing fights.
----But it didn’t involve grappling?
HH---- No, I train at a gym that has a lot of MMA fighters, but I
don’t get involved in the grappling part or the submission part.
We used to have our own gym and it was just a kick boxing, boxing
and karate gym. And he did some grappling classes.
----This was with Mr. Winklejohn?
---Yes. It was called Winklejohn’s Kick Boxing. Then Greg Jackson
had his fighters. My boyfriend, Joey Villasenor, just fought on
Showtime on the 29th of March. It’s like the UFC only it’s a
different organization called Pro Elite. He does the whole MMA
style, the grappling, submission, kick boxing, boxing. He does the
whole mixed martial arts fighting. I have team mates who are
competitive and successful in the UFC, like Keith Jardin and Rashad
Evans. And George St. Pierre comes and cross trains at our gym. And
all those guys were at Greg Jackson’s gym, and just over a year ago
we combined gyms. We basically always saw each other as team mates.
Greg Jackson had his gym, Winklejohn had our gym. And all the guys
from Jackson’s would come up on Tuesday and Thursday nights and spar
and work on their standing fighting with Mr. Winklejohn, cause he
was their up fighting coach. They decided to go ahead and combine
gyms, so we’ve been in the same gym for about a year, but we’ve been
team mates longer than that, but now we’re all in the same gym.
----Well Holly, thank you for taking the time to talk today, and I
wish you the best of luck.
HH—Thank you. Bye-bye.
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