Holly Holm had a lot of hype coming into the UFC, and she did manage to win her debut. But it wasn't the debut that many thought it would be. Her UFC 184 co-main event bout with Raquel Pennington saw Holm implementing her vaunted boxing game well, but her kicks weren't really connecting. Either way, she took the first two rounds and survived a late Pennington charge to win a split decision. The scores were 29-28, 28-29, and 30-27.
The first two rounds looked pretty identical - Holm was connecting with a fair amount of punches, but there wasn't much on them. She was throwing a few flashy kicks here and there, but wasn't really connecting with many of them (except for leg kicks and one to the head) because she was telegraphing them. Pennington was landing her own punches and occasional kick, but Holm was putting forth much more volume.
The third round saw a little more action, and Pennington scored with two hard rights. She actually dropped Holm briefly with under two minutes to go, but Holm popped up right away and peppered Pennington with knees and punches. Pennington tried to get a takedown but Holm's defense was air-tight. Pennington continued to come forward and was tagging Holm on the regular down the stretch, to the point that there was some blood coming out of her nose. But it was too little, too late.
Holm moves to 8-0 with the win, but it doesn't look like she's ready for the UFC 184 main event winner just yet.