Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm’s motion was denied by the the New York State Athletic Commission. File photo
UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion Germaine de Randamie will keep her title after a formal protest filed by her previous adversary Holly Holm was dismissed.
The New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC), as per MMAFighting, has denied Holm’s motion regarding her controversial defeat against the newly crowned champion at UFC 208 last month.
The boxer-turned-MMA pro filed a complaint against the match’s referee Todd Anderson for “failure to deduct one or more points from Germaine De Randamie following her repeated strikes thrown after the horn sounded to end Rounds 2 and 3.
“After a review of the video footage of the bout, the New York State Athletic Commission determined that there was no clear error or violation of statute or rule by Referee Todd Anderson,” an NYSAC official said. “Therefore, the scoring and outcome of the bout will not be modified.”
Almost three weeks ago, the two combatants slugged it out in a highly contested back-and-forth affair, where the Dutch fighter managed to get her hand raised after five grueling rounds of action.
READ: UFC 208: De Randamie becomes 1st women’s featherweight champ, beats Holm
However, the bout was not without its share of controversy, as De Randamie landed three punches—two after the second round and one after the third—shortly after the bell rang.
The allegedly illegal punches clearly dazed Holm and might have even affected her performance for the rest of the fight.
Still, Holm’s camp said they have accepted the commission’s decision and will be moving on from the incident.
“We respect their decision and will not seek anything further, except a rematch from Germaine,” Holm’s agent, Lenny Fresquez, said, according to the report.
For her part, the former Women’s Bantamweight champion shared the same sentiments regarding NYSAC’s decision, but couldn’t help but throw shade toward De Randamie’s actions.
“I’m not trying to be like a wuss about it and whine,” Holm said. “That’s definitely not what I’m trying to do. I think that’s a hard spot for me. A lot of people keep saying, well, she hit you after the bell, how do you feel? Well, I’m a fighter. I’m not going to sit here and whine about it and complain. There’s a lot of things I could have done.
“At least own it. She knows she did it on purpose and one of them definitely rocked me,” she said.
A possible rematch between the two has yet to be confirmed by the promotion, but De Randamie was adamant on fighting Holm once more. The champion, however, broke her hand during the fight and it remained unclear how long it would keep her sidelined. Khristian Ibarrola /ra