Holly Holm to return on Jake Paul-Julio César Chávez Jr undercard

Multiple boxing and MMA champion to return on Paul-Chavez Jr undercard

Kayla Harrison (top) en route to a submission win against Holly Holm (Getty)

Former women’s boxing and UFC champion Holly Holm will face Yolanda Vega on the undercard of Paul-Chávez Jr on 28 June.

The pair will meet in a ten-round lightweight bout at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Holm, 43 years old and 33-2 (9), will face Vega in a bout that will be broadcast on DAZN.

Holm, who beat Ronda Rousey in Melbourne, Australia, for the UFC’s women’s bantamweight championship in 2015, finished her career in the organisation with a record of 15-7-0 with one no-contest. She is also a multiple-weight world champion in boxing.

For the fight, Holm has signed with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions company. She will also be fighting at 135lbs for the first time in her career.

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Holm recently spoke with Ariel Helwani on his YouTube channel. She said: “I think my boxing this time around is going to be a little different than my boxing before. I’ve had ten years of fighting or more since my last boxing fight until now, and I feel like my style of boxing will be slightly different than when I just boxed before.”

Beginning in 2002, Holm’s professional career saw her win the lightly regarded IBA super lightweight title in 2004. In 2007, she won the WBC welterweight championship with a unanimous decision over Ann Saccurato in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She remained undefeated across multiple title fights until losing a match against Anne Sophie Mathis in 2011 via knockout in seven rounds (Holm’s other boxing loss came in 2004, just before winning her first title).

Holm went on to join the UFC in 2015, winning decisions over Raquel Pennington and Marion Reneau before upsetting Ronda Rousey in the second round with a stoppage arising from a headkick. After losing her three next fights within the Octagon, Holm returned to winning ways with a KO of Bethe Correia in 2017. Her UFC career then finished with a run of four wins and five losses.

The match between Holm and Vega will mark the former champion’s return to boxing after over twelve years.

Holm told Helwani that she expected Vega to put up a tough fight.

She added: “We’ve watched a couple of fights with her. She’s got some clean punches, she’s tough, and she’s confident. I’m not putting anything past her. And I honestly think that she’s going to be more prepared for this fight than she has been. And I expect to get the toughest version of her.”

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Vega, 10-0 (1), is 29 and comes from Ciudad Obregon in the Mexican state of Sonora. Having turned professional ten years ago, she has fought the entirety of her career at home. Her last fight took place in March in Hermosillo, where she won a wide unanimous decision over Claudia Fernanda Herrera Lopez.

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