Something new for Holly Holm: Fight against a former teammate
Mar. 23—Even if Holly Holm and Yana Santos were BFFs, not just former teammates and training partners with a healthy respect for each other, they'd still be in each other's way.
In the game of musical chairs/whack-a-mole that is the UFC women's bantamweight division behind champion Amanda Nunes, neither Holm nor Santos can afford to lose on Saturday when they face off on a UFC Fight Night card in San Antonio, Texas.
There's not much Albuquerque's Holm (14-6) hasn't seen in a combat-sports career that began more than two decades ago, but fighting a former teammate will be a new experience. Santos, then campaigning as Yana Kunitskaya, trained with Holm at Jackson-Wink MMA in 2016-18.
Theirs was a mutually beneficial relationship.
"She was a great training partner when I had a fight," Holm said, "and I was a great training partner for her when she had a fight."
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In separate phone interviews on Wednesday, the two fighters agreed that their relationship never progressed to personal friendship during Santos' relatively brief stay in Albuquerque.
"We never really went and sat down for dinner or anything like that," Holm said. "There were times when we'd go outside the gym for a run, but most of our relationship, most of our friendship, was in the gym."
Santos remembers Holm as a willing, able and generous training partner.
"It wasn't like friends," she said. "... (But) I respect her so much."
A lot has happened to Santos (14-6) since she left Albuquerque and Jackson-Wink after a loss to Cris Cyborg in March 2018. She's now married to fellow MMA fighter Thiago "Marreta" Santos and is the mother of a 10-month-old daughter, Alisa.
