Bantamweight Holly Holm off UFC 181 card because of neck injury

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The world’s former No. 1-rated female boxer has pulled out of her much-anticipated Ultimate Fighting Championship debut, her promoter said Thursday.

Promoter Lenny Fresquez told the Albuquerque Journal that bantamweight Holly Holm suffered a neck injury in training and had to withdraw from her fight with Raquel Pennington of Colorado at UFC 181 on Dec. 6 at Mandalay Bay.

Holm wanted to fight Pennington despite the injury, Fresquez said, “but there was no way I was going to let her do that. She’s pretty devastated.”

Holm, a 32-year-old Albuquerque boxer turned mixed martial arts fighter, signed with the world’s largest MMA promotion in July after months of negotiations. Fans had hoped her signing and UFC debut would lead to an eventual fight with UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.

Last year, Holm announced her retirement from boxing to focus on an MMA career. She was 33-2-3 as a boxer and is 7-0 in MMA.

Holm, ranked 15th by the UFC, said she eventually wants to fight Rousey but knows she isn’t ready for a bout of that magnitude.