8. Holly Holm
Perhaps the overall greatest female combat athlete, Holm, comes in eighth on this list. Already a multiple-time world champion in boxing and kickboxing, Holm didn't make her MMA debut until she was 29. She is to this day the only boxing world champion to transition into an elite mixed martial artist. Her kickboxing skills are very good, but lacked power, and were actually matched or surpassed by some of her opponents. However, Holm possessed likely the second best cardio in WMMA history, trailing only Joanna Jedrzejczyk, whom we will see in a later entry. She also developed great takedown defense and even potent offensive wrestling of her own, using it to defeat multiple opponents, especially later in her career. Holm began 9-0, with the most notable victories being a split decision against Raquel Pennington—which should have been unanimous—and using kicks to easily defeat the excellent boxer Marion Reneau. That earned her a title shot against Ronda Rousey where, despite being undefeated, she was a massive +800 underdog. In one of the most famous fights ever, Holm stopped Rousey's grappling attack and repeatedly tagged her with punches before putting her out cold with a head kick in the second round.
Unfortunately, Holm would lose four of her next five, which was more a function of facing great opponents than any shortcoming on her part. She was choked out late in Round 5 in a fight she was clearly winning on the cards to lose her title to Tate, then dropped back-to-back decisions to superior strikers in Valentina Shevchenko and Germaine de Randamie. After a nice knockout of Bethe Correia, she lost another decision to a legend, this time to Cristiane Justino. At that point Holm was 36, and while she was continuing to improve certain skills, natural physical decline meant she was no longer in her prime. Yet she continued doing well, if no longer a serious threat to win the title, defeating Megan Anderson with her wrestling before being knocked out in the first round by Amanda Nunes. Holm then defeated Raquel Pennington in a rematch and won all five rounds against Irene Aldana, again with her grappling. She lost a split decision to Ketlen Viera earlier this year that probably should have gone her way, but at 41, her time as a fighter may be coming to an end. As great a career as Holm has had in MMA, one is left wondering if she would have been even more brilliant had she started earlier.
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