I feel as though the UFC does this frequently to their stars that have seen their glory slide away. Unfortunately a lot of these fighters allow it to happen and I fear that Holly Holm is going to be heading down that path after a couple of years of lackluster performance.
Despite not winning often she has become a crowd favorite over the years because of her good attitude, well rounded skills, and also that she literally refuses to give up.
src
When facing Misha Tate she refused to tap even as the darkness set in. There was some criticism of the ref for allowing here to go completely unconscious but I was on the ref's side in this one: It is not their job to determine when a fighter should submit and Holly refused to. She was appeared lifeless in the octagon for several minutes after the fight was called.
Since that day, Holly has been underperforming. Sure she has won 50% of her fights but they were against unknowns in the industry. She still rides the fame as being the person that dethroned Rhonda Rousey, but since then she has been rather unremarkable in her fights, normally being relegated to the mid-card or appearing on non pay-per-view events.
Her name is still really valuable though and I think that UFC is going to milk that for all it is worth. The women's division basically across the board is really struggling to regain the former glory and people's interest in the women's division is starting to wane. Therefore, the management attempts to introduce new talent and one of first names that pops up when they want to give someone a "push" is Holly Holm
src
Kayla Harrison is an Olympic gold-medalist and has been fighting in PFL for, well, I don't know how long. The move from PFL to UFC kind of shows that despite PFL absorbing Bellator and getting a huge amount of money sunk into the promotion, that UFC is still by far the top place to be... That's a story in itself though and I will save it for another day.
Kayla is the first thing that fight fans have been really excited about in the women's division for a while and I can't help but feel like Dana is intentionally throwing Holly to the wolves here and is using what remains of her fame to push Kayla into the spotlight.
Harrison went on a 15 fight unbeaten streak in PFL and in here spare time she wandered over to Invicta and won two titles there. This woman is the real deal and I think that Holly is going to get destroyed by her and then likely announce her retirement.
Kayla is quite large for a woman fighter and when UFC had a bunch of women that were larger than your average fighter, the lightweight division looked like the future. However, with Cyborg getting a much earlier than expected exit and nobody really around to challenge Amanda Nunes' title, it appears as though UFC is doing away with the women's lightweight division altogether. This will require that Kayla lose weight and drop to bantamweight, along with anyone else that was previously in that division. They tried... there's not much else to say about that but with Nunes retiring after not really ever needing to defend that belt, I see no reason to keep the division around.
I guess you could say that I am pleased that UFC isn't just giving Kayla a shot at the title on her first day, which is what we see with other imported stars. That has always annoyed me when people walk in on their first day and win a title that other people have been vying for for years.
src
I'm not a huge fan of the Bantamweight division for women and neither are a majority of the fans. I had forgotten that Pennington was the champion to be honest. UFC's idea of putting Kayla in there is the hope that she will make it exciting again but it is just a damn shame that they are, at least in my mind, intentionally sacrificing one of the nicest people in all of MMA in order to make it happen. I hope that Holly was able to negotiate a good payout for this, because I fear that she is going to get destroyed pretty early on if Harrison decides to do anything other than kickboxing, which is really the only true weapon that Holly has in her arsenal.
I suppose Holly could always say no but with a recent record like hers is, she probably has her back against the wall and is in danger of being cut anyway. She's 42, and not many fighters in men or women's MMA is able to do very well at that point in their careers. It's crazy to me that even though she is one of the most recognized names in women's MMA that she has a net worth of a mere $4 million.
I hope she can put on a good show but honestly, I feel like UFC is just using her for this. Maybe Holly is ready to quit anyway and realizes the end is nigh win or lose so might as well go out with a big payday at a pay-per-view. Who knows? Maybe she can fight Jake Paul afterwards.