UFC Star Holly Holm Files for Divorce

UFC star Holly Holm filed for divorce from husband Jeff Kirkpatrick.

Holm filed for divorce in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reports TMZ Sports. The 37-year-old listed March 2018 as the date of separation and said the two are no longer living as husband and wife. She also wants the judge to legally change her name from Holly Holm-Kirkpatrick back to Holly Holm.

Holm cited “incompatibility because of discord and conflict of personalities” as the reason for the split.

The couple married in Cancun in 2012 after being college sweethearts at the University of New Mexico. They did not have any children together, and Holm said neither of them should need spousal support.

Holm, a former three-weight boxing world champion born in Albuquerque, began her professional fighting career in kickboxing in 2001 before she debuted in boxing in 2002. She began a mixed martial arts career in 2011 and joined UFC in 2014. In 2015, she famously handed Ronda Rousey her first MMA loss at UFC 193. Her most recent UFC win came at UFC 224 in June 2018 against Megan Anderson. She is scheduled to fight the undefeated Aspen Ladd at UFC 235 in Las Vegas on March 2.

During her UFC career, Holm has reportedly earned more than $1.6 million. She is ranked number two on the UFC’s official women’s bantamweight rankings, behind only Germaine de Randamie. She has a 12-4 overall record and is 5-4 in the UFC.

The March 2 fight will mark a post-injury comeback for Holm. According to ESPN, Holm had successful knee surgery in September and needed four weeks to recover. She sat out the rest of 2018 after the surgery.

Holm’s fighting moniker is “The Preacher’s Daughter” because her father, Roger, is a Church of Christ preacher. Roger was apprehensive about his daughter’s career in professional combat sports at first, but grew to accept it over time, according to a 2015 Albuquerque Journal profile.

“I’ve always told Holly two things. I said, No. 1, I’m behind you if you want to quit tomorrow,” he said at the time. “But if she wants to keep fighting, that’s fine. It’s living.”

After she defeated Rousey in 2015, Holm suffered three consecutive UFC losses before she beat Bethe Correia at UFC Fight Night 111 in June 2017. She told Sportskeeda in 2017 she never lets those losses get in the way of the next fight.

“I wanna win the fight that I have in front of me,” she said. “In a small way I like to feel like each fight is my last fight, because you’re never really promised anything else. I wanna make the most of this fight, and it is it’s own journey. Any loss I have in my past I would love to be able to avenge, but that’s not where my thoughts are at.”

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