Holly Holm reveals the injury that forced her out of the fight against Raquel Pennington at UFC 243
Former bantamweight champion Holly Holm never wants to pull out of a fight but a torn hamstring was an injury she could not ignore ahead of her scheduled showdown against Raquel Pennington at UFC 243.
Originally scheduled for the main card in Melbourne, Australia, Holm’s fight with Pennington was ultimately scrapped and pulled from the card after she suffered an injury late into her training camp.
As Holm explained in an Instagram post detailing the injury, it’s nothing serious that will keep her sidelined very long but it severe enough to prevent her from fighting on Saturday night.
“If you don’t know, I have been injured and I cannot fight in Australia,” Holm said. “Something that is super heavy on my heart and I’m super bummed out about. Go through a whole training camp and not be able to make it to the fight. And not just for me, this is a training camp for Raquel Pennington as well, my opponent, who I have a lot of respect for.
“I don’t know the scientific terms but the ligament or the tendon that attaches my hamstring to my bone, I tore 30 percent of it this last week in training. The good news is I don’t need surgery, but it’s just one week’s not enough time to be ready to fight. So I’ll be rehabbing it and I’ll be back at it soon and I will let you guys know when we get this fight rescheduled.”
The fight was actually a rematch from 2015 when Holm edged out Pennington by split decision in her Octagon debut.
With Holm out, the UFC also pulled Pennington from the card and there’s a possibility the fight will be rescheduled for a later date. Nothing has been determined just yet with Holm still recovering from the hamstring tear.
As of now, the UFC has not determined which fight from the undercard will get moved to the main card for UFC 243 this weekend.