UFC legend and boxing hall-of-fame fighter Holly Holm has admitted she is intrigued by a fight with Katie Taylor at Croke Park in Dublin.
The Irishwoman is the undisputed lightweight champion; a division where Holm never fought during her days as a three-weight boxing world champion. But she does compete at that 135lb limit, known in MMA as bantamweight, in the UFC, where she became world champion by beating Ronda Rousey in an historic upset in 2015.
Holm's bout with Rousey took place in front of over 57,000 fans in Melbourne, one of the biggest live events in MMA history and certainly the biggest women's fight of all time. But a boxing match with Taylor in front of more than 80,000 at Dublin's Croke Park would likely smash that record for both live gate and viewership, which is a prospect she is keen on looking into.
"I think anybody in this sport, if you make it a career, it's because you have a certain passion for life," Holm told Mirror Fighting in New York this week. "It's a certain passion that you have to have in order to choose fighting for a living - we don't fight for money, we start as amateurs because we love it.
"So when you look at something like that, something you can shoot for, a goal, it's something that can be historic. Of course that's intriguing, that's what I have in my heart, I want to accomplish things that are huge, I want to make big things happen in my life through my sport."
Holm was inducted this year into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and has won belts previously at super-lightweight, welterweight and super-welterweight. She considered a move down to lightweight before going to the UFC, where she does compete at 135lb.
Having previously headlined a number of major pay-per-view events, including her bout with Rousey which sold to over 1.1million people in America, she would likely be the only other draw than Amanda Serrano who could face Taylor in such a venue. Eddie Hearn wants the rematch between Serrano and Taylor, but Holm is also an option he has looked at with one fight left on her UFC deal.
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"I really see a rematch happening between her and Amanda," Holm added. "With that fight, it was just a toe-to-toe fight the whole time anyway and I foresee a rematch for them for sure... I know a lot of people throw my name in there to talk about it because there's maybe a curiosity about it and if I were to go back to boxing how I would do.
"I'm super proud of them [Taylor and Serrano]. A lot of people ask me if I'm upset that women's boxing wasn't on as much of a big scale or that I didn't get paid like that. No, I'm proud to be one of those people that helped to get boxing to where it is now and I'm very proud of these girls.
"The opportunities that they're getting, they've worked for it. They created that opportunity for themselves, but there has been some people beforehand who have helped them to pave a little bit of the way. I give them all the credit, they've put the hard work in and they've showed it, I was super excited to see females headlining and selling out a huge card like their's it was amazing to see."
