Holly Holm felt cheated by her opponent, wronged by the referee and defeated by the judges. She held back welling tears as she took account of the fall she’s taken since the euphoria of her knockout of Ronda Rousey 16 months ago.
“I’m sitting at a spot where my last three fights, I’m 0-3, so I’m going to take whatever they give me,” Holm said when asked what she’ll do next.
Kickboxer Germaine de Randamie of the Netherlands edged Holm, 48-47 on all three scorecards, to become the UFC’s first women’s featherweight champion early Sunday morning Eastern time at Barclays Center.
De Randamie (7-3) relied on effective counterpunching to out-strike Holm by a 144-122 margin. Her lean, strong frame allowed her to avoid all nine of Holm’s takedown attempts.
What bothered Holm (10-3) and her coach, Mike Winkeljohn, most was that De Randamie also struck Holm with punches after the bell in both the second and third rounds. A right hand buckled Holm’s knees after the second-round bell and the late third-round punches brought roars of protest from the crowd.
In only the second major UFC card in New York, state referee Todd Anderson missed the moment. He didn’t warn De Randamie after the second-round violation, and he didn’t deduct a point after she repeated the transgression.
Holm said she believed De Randamie’s late punches were on purpose.
“The second time, you’d think they’d do something,” Holm said. “I’m one of those that feels like I shouldn’t have let her do it anyway. But, yes, it’s after the bell. It was intentional.
“Some of her best shots of the night were after the bell and I don’t know how the judges saw that. If that’s points for her, what can you do?”
That unknown applies to her career, too.
Holm lost the bantamweight belt she took from Rousey by fifth-round submission to Miesha Tate in March, then produced a flat effort in losing to Valentina Shevchenko, likely the next bantamweight title challenger, in July.
Photos from UFC 208 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
She bemoaned the fact that she couldn’t follow up on two punches that rocked De Randamie, and expressed regret over wasting time by pressing De Randamie to the cage.
“When you’re going for the takedown, you have to commit to it, and if I wasn’t going to commit to it, I should’ve just sat back and striked,” Holm said.
“I know I didn’t do as much damage as I wanted to do … she literally dropped to her knees once and I sit in the clinch with her. That was stupid, I should’ve gone after it.”
De Randamie apologized inside the octagon for the late punches. “It was in the heat of the moment. It wasn’t meant.”
But she skipped the post-fight news conference for medical treatment after revealing in the octagon that she needs surgery on torn hand ligaments, and that was viewed by many as an escape route away from potential next foe, dominant Southland-trained Cris “Cyborg” Justino.
Justino (16-1) is enthused by positive indications that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will veer from suspending her over a December positive test for a banned diuretic; the fighter says it was prescribed for fertility and other issues.
De Randamie “is a very tough fighter and a deserving champion, but I’m ready to fight her and saw several things in her against Holly that make me confident in my abilities,” Justino wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times.
Noting the possible injury layoff, Justino wondered if the UFC would grant her the chance — if cleared by USADA — to fight again soon in her former fight organization, Invicta, against interim featherweight champion Megan Anderson.
Holm argued, amid arena protests when the scores were read and the controversy over the late punches, that a rematch with De Randamie is justified.
“I would think they’d want to give a rematch. I just hope I get the opportunity,” Holm said, with a disclaimer in light of those late punches.
“Next time, I’ll just be ready to throw back.”
lance.pugmire@latimes.com
@latimespugmire
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