Holly Holm and her ex-husband (Instagram)
Ahead of her featured bantamweight fight against Ketlen Viera at UFC Vegas 55, we take a look at the ex-husband of Holly Holm, her kids and more
A multiple-time world champion in boxing, who defended her titles 18 times in three weight classes, and a two-time Ring magazine fighter of the year Holly Holm returns to action this weekend. Holly Holm broke into every MMA fan, publication, and expert radar when she captured the bantamweight title and gave Ronda Rousey her first loss in the sport in front of a record-breaking crowd.
Holm’s path to a career in boxing and kickboxing began with aerobics classes when she was 16 years old. Her cardio-kickboxing instructor, Mike Winkeljohn, recognized Holm’s potential as a fighter and began training her.
In September 2001, Holm won the championship title in the International Rules Adult Women’s Welterweight Division at the International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) USA National Amateur Championship Tournament, held in Kansas City, Missouri. She fought two bouts in the tournament. She won the first by technical knockout at 34 seconds in the first round. She won the second by unanimous decision.
Holm made her UFC debut against Raquel Pennington at UFC 184, and won the fight by split decision. After capturing the title from Rousey, she lost her title to Meisha Tate at UFC 196- a night that shocked the world with two major upsets. Since then, she has been on a rollercoaster ride, and hasn’t been able to achieve proper consistency. She is riding on a two fight winning streak currently, as she’s striving towards reestablishing herself as a formidable threat in the division.
Holly Holm’s was once married and ex – husband’s name is Jeff Kirkpatrick. Like Holm, Kirkpatrick was born and brought up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His parents, Toni and Vicki raised him along with his two sisters, whose names aren’t public. Majoring in accounting and finance he is a student at University of the New Mexico.
Publicly he is known as the ex – husband of the former women’s bantamweight champion, Holly Holm. After being in a relationship for several years, the couple got married on 27th April 2012 in Cancun, Mexico.
Holm filed the petition for divorce on Jan 3rd, 2019. It was later revealed however that the couple had not lived under the same roof for almost a year. Initially, the process was supposed to be private but TMZ was the first one to report the story on Jan 13th, 2019. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, she gave her thoughts on the story going public .
“We’d kind of put it in for it to be a sealed case, just because I’m in the public eye and my husband has a family business locally,” she said. “… We put in that we wanted it sealed, and they didn’t (do so), which is fine with me.”
“I’m one of those (people) that’s always been an open book. I’m not trying to go through life acting like everything’s perfect. I’m not trying to go through my life pretending like nothing’s going on when it is.”
“Maybe I’ll open up more about it later, I’m not really sure, But there’s a lot of things I’ve been dealing with for quite some time, a very long time, and now I’m free of it. “Every single one of us who fights has a personal life, and who knows what’s going on? I’m going through a divorce, and somebody else might be going through losing their mom from cancer, or somebody else might be going through maybe (dealing with) a loved one who’s a drug addict”
Holm was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the youngest of three children. Her father, Roger, is a Church of Christ preacher. As a fighter, Holly would later be nicknamed “The Preacher’s Daughter”—and her mother, Tammy, is a massage therapist. Holm is of primarily Irish descent.
Growing up, Holm played soccer and participated in gymnastics, swimming and diving. Her parents divorced shortly before she graduated from Manzano High School in 2000; after graduation, she studied for a year at the University of New Mexico.
Holly Holm and Jeff Kirkpatrick do not have any kids together.
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