Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Combat Athletes

3. Holly Holm

Holm is the first, though not the last, fighter on this list who had great success in not just two combat sports, but three. A former UFC bantamweight champion and longtime top contender, Holm was No. 8 on Sherdog's list of the ten greatest female fighters pound-for-pound. That includes perhaps the greatest victory in WMMA history, knocking out the undefeated, seemingly peerless Ronda Rousey with a head kick in 2015. Even now at 41 years old, Holm is one of the best bantamweights in the world, dismantling Yana Santos just a few months ago. However, by the time she had made her MMA debut at the age of 29, she was already a multiple-time champion in both boxing and kickboxing. In kickboxing, she attained a record of 14-1-7 (Yes, 7 draws! I'm surprised, too) winning an amateur title. She had even more success in professional boxing, going 33-2-3. She won world titles in three different weight classes: junior welterweight (140 pounds), welterweight (147 pounds) and junior middleweight (154 pounds). Furthermore, she was the undisputed queen at welterweight for a while and held championships from December 2004 all the way to her last boxing fight in May 2013, a successful defense of her IBA and WBF titles at 140 pounds. Not only was Holm genuinely great in two different combat sports, MMA and boxing, but she was also good in a third one, kickboxing.

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