Former champ Holly Holm odd woman out in UFC bantamweight division

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight champ Holly Holm might have accepted a proposed fight against newcomer Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino had she known for sure a title rematch against Miesha Tate was off the table.

Holm revealed her thought process on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour.”

Tate will defend the belt she won from Holm at UFC 200 on July 9 at T-Mobile Arena against Amanda Nunes. The bout was announced last week, just more than a week after UFC officials announced the signing of Justino, who will debut against Leslie Smith in May.

Holm confirmed she turned down an offer to fight Justino, but insists the decision was motivated by the hope of earning a rematch with Tate after losing the belt by fifth-round submission in March.

The former champ, who stunned Ronda Rousey in November to take the belt, elected to fight Tate instead of waiting for Rousey to return in what would have undoubtedly been the biggest women’s fight in mixed martial arts history.

With Rousey still on the shelf, Holm hoped Tate would return the favor. Holm was disheartened to hear Nunes would instead get the first shot.

“I would hope (Tate) would want to give me the chance like I gave her the chance,” Holm said on the show. “But I also feel like I take responsibilities for what I do and I am the one that lost the belt, so I lost a lot of my pull of what I can wish and hope for and push for.

”Yeah, I was hoping she would give me that chance, but she also has her own career to focus on and what she aspires to do, so I can’t judge her for that, either. I was hoping she would, but I’m not mad at her or anything like that.”

Tate said a rematch was never offered. Holm’s representatives have publicly stated their belief to the contrary.

Regardless, Holm has been left in a difficult position with a top contender bout between Julianna Pena and Cat Zingano also on tap.

UFC 200 will also feature a rematch of a welterweight bout between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, who first fought on the same night Holm lost to Tate. McGregor was granted a rematch despite being submitted in the second round.

Although she acknowledged McGregor is a cash cow for the organization, Holm thought she may get the same privilege for losing in the final round of a fight she was winning.

“I definitely feel like our fight had more competitiveness. I feel like our fight was more competitive than the main event,” she said. “Yes I lost my belt, but I was winning the fight and it kind of creates this curiosity of what would happen in a rematch. I don’t know. Hopefully they will put something together. But obviously it’s going to be a while. After UFC 200, if she still has the belt, who knows how much time she is going to want to take off. That’s what’s frustrating is that, man, I want to fight for that rematch, but it might be a while so I have to see if they want to give me a different fight. Maybe Zingano or Pena, but they put them together.

“Right now it just seems like I’ll be hanging out for awhile, and it’s frustrating.”

Rousey would seem to be in line to fight Tate next should she successfully defend the belt against Nunes.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj