Holly Holm is headed toward the biggest fight of her career when she takes on the reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey for UFC 193 at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on Nov. 14.
While Holm has peculiarly remained mum on the match, such cannot be said about Rousey. While the brash talk on the part of Rousey is nothing new, a seemingly silent Holm has opted not to engage in a word war, which the former boxer believes is a ploy that Rousey has been using on her past adversaries.
Could Holm be up to something or simply wanting to let her actions do it for her?
Whatever it is, the silence has been deafening in a manner of speaking. With just a week to go before the match, not much drama nor hype has been injected if you compare it to Rousey's previous opponent, Bethe Correia.
Could it be because Holm knows the mind game angle being a former boxer? Well, maybe so. But then again, she is surrounded by some of the MMA's true psychological masters at Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA in Albuquerque which could be a reason why she has opted to stay away from the trash talking involved in UFC fights.
All this changes, of course, once Holm enters the Octagon and comes face-to-face with Rousey. This is where the real action begins.
But unlike in past fights that saw Rousey somehow intimidating her opponents, Holm is entering it with lots of composure. Could the approach work for Holm?
Rousey is still an odds on favorite to come out over Holm but then again, there is that cloud lingering above, forming with the uncanny composure and silence of the challenger.
It could be her strategy or probably, she's just maintaining focus. But at this stage, the whole approach does seem a bit different if you think about how the past opponents of Rousey handled their respective situations leading to the actual fight.
