It's evident that Dana White did not hear a single thing Holly Holm said during her brief stint as UFC women's bantamweight champion. Or he thinks she's just stupid.
White said he felt bad for the former champion, blaming a lost opportunity to make a lot of money in a rematch against Ronda Rousey on her manager, to ESPN's Rusillo and Kanell Radio Show, as USA Today Sports' For the Win reported.
Holly Holm Doesn't Want Ronda Rousey To Define Her Career
"The sad part about that is, listen, he's an old boxing guy who thinks he's smart, and he's not," White said on Russillo & Kanell. "It's one of those things. I feel bad about it. I feel bad for Holly. I don't know if Holly really knows what she lost. I think she has so much faith in the people that surround her, she feels like, 'Well, they got me this far.'
"We had this meeting, and Holly wasn't even in it. Holly, that's your life. You should be in that meeting. Don't leave it to these people. Anyway, Holly made a lot of money. She accomplished great things, she beat Ronda Rousey. But it could have been so much bigger for her, and the sad part is, I don't think she even knows it."
Miesha Tate-Holly Holm Outcome Works Out Perfectly for Ronda Rousey
Sorry, Dana, but Holly's a big girl. She understood exactly what she was getting into.
Holm has said she didn't want Ronda Rousey to define her legacy, either positively or negatively. She would've had to wait a year or more -- there's still no assurances that Rousey would've come back from her UFC hiatus to fight Holm at all -- for a fight that may or may not have happened.
"Trust me, the last fight was one of the best moments of my life," Holm told Yahoo Sports last month. "But I don't want to be defined by one fight, I don't want that to be the whole focus of my life.
"I told myself I would never fight for money or for fame. I would fight for passion."
At 34 years old, Holm is at the tail end of her prime. She didn't want to sit around and wait to fight once a year, so she went after Miesha Tate. It didn't work out. So Holm will get back to work.
In fact, if White had thought about it, he'd let Holm have the rematch against Tate and then put that winner up against Rousey at the beginning of 2017 so he could give his precious Ronda a couple of more months to clear her calendar --- and decide if she really wants to return.
Just because someone is driven by something other than greed, Dana, that doesn't make them stupid.
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