"She didn't shock me. Of course not. I'm familiar with Holly Holm. She's a talented boxer. She's a world champion. She's got MMA background and obviously was no chump, so I'm excited for her and hopefully, you know, she'll get the exposure she needs to take her career to the next level," stated world-renowned former world champion Laila Ali, who shared her thoughts on Holly Holm's 2nd round knockout of former UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Like her famous father, Ali did not hold her tongue when it came to voicing her opinion about the performance of both women.
"It's obvious who the better fighter was," Ali expained to TMZ before taking a dig at the flaws in Rousey's striking game. "Oh, where do I begin (laughing), but I mean, you know, it's not even about her at this point. It's just that I think she can watch the tape and see what she needs to work on."
Ali continued, "It wasn't a boxing match, definitely not. No. Holly Holm did not fight last night like she used to fight in the ring. You can't go into a MMA fight and fight the same way that you would in a boxing match. Any smart fighter, any type of fighter, regardless of what it is, you got to know what you get in there to face and you gotta prepare yourself for it mentally and physically."
When asked to go into detail about what went wrong for Rousey, Ali replied, "I don't even want to talk about her because there's so many things that I could say, but I think at this point, you know what I mean, we need to understand in order to be the best in your world, you definitely don't ever get beat up like that in your prime, period."
She added, "I don't think she should have a rematch with Holly Holm because I think it would go the same way the second time. Probably worse."
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