Holly Holm lost against Ketlen Vieira at UFC Vegas 55, despite believing she deserved the victory.
The judges beat the reigning bantamweight champion. Both Mike Bell & Derek Cleary had it 48-47 for Vieira, while Sal D’Amato had 48-47 for Holm. Vieira won by split decision. The vote was divided between Bell and Cleary, with Bell giving the nod to Viera.
After the fight, Holm expressed her displeasure with the scoring, which she blamed for costing her the victory.
Because they have not gone to a training camp and do not know what you put on the line, they opt to chuck this round here or that round when it falls short,” Holm remarked on the post-fight show for UFC Vegas 55. “I disagree with what they are saying. They have gotten under my skin, and I am fed up with them.
As a judge, “I realize it is a difficult position, since you have to make that judgment right there,” yet “I felt like I won.”
As far as Holm was concerned, she won four rounds to Vieira’s one. A tight rear-naked choke in the middle of the scramble for the position following a takedown attempt convinced her that the Brazilian won the second round.
Most of the battle took place in the clinch, where Holm had the upper hand, but Vieira scored several devastating blows as the action moved closer to the middle of the octagon.
Holm did not comprehend how anybody could give Vieira three out of the five rounds on the scorecards after several tense confrontations.
“I felt like she had the second round, but at the conclusion of the fight, I honestly believed in my heart that I won the battle,” Holm said. To put it another way, I am upset.
In my opinion, she is not worthy of a third round. To win the bout, she would need three rounds. I am not going to offer her three rounds of combat. But since I am a perfectionist, I want to be certain that there can be no ambiguity because I felt like I had the upper hand in this conflict.
Holm’s fault was that she was unable to wreak havoc in the clinch, where she had her greatest moments in the 25-minute fight. Although she did feel that Vieira did a little better, she did not feel as if the scores that helped her win were enough to warrant her superior performance.
Holm said, “I wanted to be more destructive there.” I held her there because of the punches, and she is normally quite adept at avoiding slips off the fence and such.” She managed to get me off my feet a few times, but I could shut it down because that was her game. I intended to be even more devastating in certain places, though.
After the second round, “I felt like we were starting a fresh fight and we had to win the remainder of this,” he said.
Finally, Holm was defeated by the decision, and she must come to terms with her loss while determining her next move after initially assuming that a win would have won her another crack at UFC gold.
She described the situation as a “loss” at this point. “It can not ever be a question if I will be back and better.”