'I think about doing both' - Why Holly Holm is dreaming about boxing for the first time in years

For the first time in nearly 10 years, Holly Holm is thinking about professional boxing.

To be clear, Holm's primary focus is still very much on MMA and recapturing the UFC bantamweight championship that she won in 2015 and surrendered in 2016. Holm (14-5) faces Ketlen Vieira in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. If she wins, she will have won three in a row — and possibly could earn her first UFC title shot since coming up short against Amanda Nunes in 2019.

«If I want to get to the belt, I have to go through Ketlen Vieira,» Holm told ESPN. «She's probably one of the toughest opponents I could have to get back there. I have to get this right. I have to show what I'm capable of.»

A win over Vieira (12-2) this weekend and a UFC title fight later this year — those are Holm's immediate goals. But beyond that, what else?

Ever since Holm, 40, retired from professional boxing as a three-division champion to make a complete transition into MMA in 2013, she has rarely talked publicly about boxing. She has maintained a love and appreciation for the sport in which she competed professionally for 11 years but has shown zero interest in a return to the ring.

«I haven't heard her talk about boxing since her last pro fight,» said Mike Winkeljohn, her coach in boxing and MMA. «In fact, I even think there were a couple fights left in her boxing career where she was done with it. She wanted to move on. After she left, people would still talk about it and try to offer her a comeback fight, and she'd go, 'Nah. I'm done.' Her entire MMA career, she's never thought about boxing.»

Two recent developments, however, have changed that.

In December, Holm (33-2-3, 9 KOs in boxing) was announced as part of the 2022 class of