Promoters work ring for more women's fights since Holm-Rousey bout By Times, adapted by Newsela staff on 03.01.16 Word Count 889

Holly Holm (right) celebrates after defeating (left) during their UFC 193 Bantamweight title fight in Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 15, 2015. Since the upset victory, more attention is turning to women's . AP/Andy Brownbill

Millions of people watched recently as former female boxing world champion Holly Holm outpunched (MMA) champion Ronda Rousey. MMA is a combination fighting style. While boxing only allows punching, MMA allows punches, kicks, strikes with the knees and elbows, and a number of wrestling moves.

Holm and Rousey were fighting for the Women's Bantamweight title, a class in boxing and MMA for fighters who weigh between 115 and 118 pounds. The event was the November 2015 Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in Melbourne, Australia.

Rousey, as the current MMA champion, was expected to win. Instead, Holm won, which was surprising since she was known for her success in boxing, not MMA. Holm, 34, became the first world champion boxer to win a MMA title when she beat Rousey. The way that she defeated the previously unbeaten Rousey led to huge media attention and made Holm a star.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1 Spotlight On Women's Boxing

Mauricio Sulaiman is the head of the , an organization that organizes world championship boxing events and gives out title belts. He was watching the MMA fight, and hopes that Holm’s triumph in that sport will also bring more attention to women’s boxing in the United States. “These are great athletes," he says. "Female boxing is very competitive. They fight two-minute rounds for 10 rounds. Action-packed fights."

Sulaiman says Holm's win is proof of his claim that U.S. boxing promoters, who set up and pay for the matches, should put more female fights on major cards. A card is the lineup of all the matches taking place at a boxing event.

"What I’ve seen from female athletes in the ring is a completely different story from what we sometimes see in the inaction of some men,” Sulaiman says.

Promoters Work The Cards

The absence of women’s fights on national television and limited media coverage has hurt women's earning ability, with top fighters making only about $15,000 per match, including cash from tickets that they sell on their own. “It’s a matter of the promoters stepping up,” Sulaiman says.

Lou DiBella is one promoter who is stepping up. He stages boxing shows in New York that air on local TV, and says, “It’s become a little bit of a cause to me.” DiBella also promotes the television series Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on the East Coast. He is trying to get women's fights added to the smaller PBC shows on Fox Sports 1 and Showtime. “Women’s boxing is an Olympic sport, the talent pool is growing, and it’s better than it’s been in my lifetime," he says.

DiBella set up matches between a fighter from , New York, named and Olivia Gerula, a fighter from Canada. He is also excited about a match between a brawler named Shelly Vincent and an unbeaten fighter, Heather Hardy, who is also a single mom.

Pulling In Corporate Sponsors

Another promoter, Eric Gomez is the vice president of Golden Boy Promotions, a boxing promotional company started by former boxing world champion Oscar De La Hoya, whose nickname is "The Golden Boy." Gomez says there is “potential, proven around the world, mainly in Mexico, for big television ratings. In Europe, they have strong support, too. It’s a little behind in the U.S.”

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 2 Gomez plans to stage women’s fights this year. “It’s not just, ‘Hey, let’s do girl fights.’ We want to single out who are the best ones out there, who has the potential to really fight and be entertaining,” he says. Part of the plan will require more corporate sponsors who pay for advertising to get their company's name and brand featured at events featuring female fighters.

“Holly Holm is a prime example of a female boxer who can fight, who’s good-looking, who can potentially be a big, big boxing star," he says. "All she needed was the opportunity.”

Holm Says "Passion First"

Holm earned her boxing record fighting through 2013 in matches in New Mexico and California. “Women’s boxing should get a lot more coverage, she says. "I felt like I just needed to keep fighting well, and that hopefully doors and opportunities would open. I’m thankful for those who did support me in boxing, because women’s boxing is a hard thing to make money at.”

It was not the money, however, that led her to the UFC. “I started getting intrigued by MMA, started to think, ‘I want to do more, want to try something new, want to climb a new mountain,’” Holm said. “I always told myself passion first and then everything else will fall into place.”

That yearning led to Holm’s multimillion-dollar, multifight contract extension with the UFC.

The roots of that accomplishment were boxing.

Next Test Upcoming

“Girls train hard,” Holm said. “If you’re doing it, obviously it’s because you love it, not because you’re making a lot of money. You can get a true, more passionate fight with the females boxing, because they do it only because they love it. If you box, you need another job. You can’t live off just a boxing career."

The next test for Holm will come in March when she makes her first women’s title defense against a former title challenger named . A Rousey rematch is likely coming up this year too, and at the start of all that success, was boxing.

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