Stephanie Han derails Holly Holm's boxing comeback after WBA title bout ends early due to cut

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Holly Holm's pursuit of another boxing world title hit a major snag Saturday night in Puerto Rico. The former UFC women's bantamweight champion suffered a unanimous decision loss to WBA lightweight champion Stephanie Han after an accidental head-butt opened a wide cut across Han's forehead and forced the bout to go to the scorecards midway through the seventh round.

Han was well ahead when the accidental foul prompted a doctor's stoppage at the 1:44 mark of the round, and because the bout had already surpassed its halfway mark, a judges' decision was rendered (69-65, 69-64, 68-65) in Han's favor, allowing her to retain her title against the 44-year-old legend.

"Obviously I wanted to go the distance, but things like this happen in boxing," Han said afterward. "I'm so happy, you have no idea. It's not the way I wanted it, but a win is a win — and I want to thank you, Holly. 

"Holly, you're an absolute legend. If you want a rematch, let's do it in El Paso, let's do it in Albuquerque. I would love the opportunity to fight you again the whole distance of the rounds."

Han, 35, entered Saturday's bout nine years Holm's junior and certainly looked the part of the younger, faster fighter. After an early feeling-out process, Han (12-0, 3 KOs) took control in Round 3, consistently popping Holm (34-2-3, 9 KOs) with hard right-hand counters and both outworking and out-landing Holm with volume. As the rounds wore on and Holm became predictable with her entries and one-twos, the champion diversified her attacks, going body-head repeatedly and sticking right hands in Holm's face.

With an 87-to-29 lead in landed punches and a 26% hit rate compared with Holm's paltry 12%, Han was pulling well ahead in the exchanges before both fighters' heads inadvertently collided midway through Round 7, causing blood to instantly pour out of a fresh cut above Han's left eye.

"Not being able to finish it is the hardest part, but she had a lot of volume and I was kind of waiting for those later rounds to take over," a disappointed Holm said following her first boxing loss since 2011. "And you can't do that when things [like this] happen. I didn't want it to end like that.

"Absolutely [we can rematch next], nobody wants the fight to end like that. I don't."

Widely considered one of the greatest women's boxers of all time, Holm was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017. She defended her various titles 18 times across three different divisions from 2002-13 before retiring from the sweet science and fully committing to MMA.

That decision swiftly paid dividends, as Holm (15-7 MMA) authored one of the biggest upsets in the sport's history just two years later when she dethroned Ronda Rousey to capture the UFC women's bantamweight title with a stunning head-kick knockout at UFC 193. Holm ultimately fought 16 times in the Octagon, challenging twice for the UFC women's featherweight belt in 2017 and once more for the bantamweight title in 2019, falling short in all three of those attempts.

Holm mutually parted ways with the MMA leader in January 2025 and told Uncrowned at the time that she still considered the boxing chapter of her career to be "unfinished business." She swiftly signed with Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions roster in May and declared her desire to pursue another boxing world title in a fourth weight class. In her first in-ring appearance in more than 12 years, Holm picked up right where she'd left off this past June, dominating Yolanda Guadalupe Vega Ochoa for a lopsided decision win on the Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. undercard.

Han won the WBA title with a first-round knockout of Hannah Terlep in February 2025, then retained her belt with a decision over Paulina Angel in August after recovering from an early knockdown.

Han vs. Holm was contested with 10 three-minute rounds, rather than the usual two-minute rounds used in women's boxing, continuing a recent trend for many fighters within Paul's MVP stable.

Check out full results and highlights from Saturday's Amanda Serrano vs. Reina Tellez fight card in San Juan, Puerto Rico.