Holly Holm doesn’t miss a beat with shutout points win in return

ANAHEIM, California – Holly Holm stepped back in a professional boxing ring for the first time in more than a dozen years Saturday, three years after her International Boxing Hall of Fame induction.

And it was like she never left.

In a unanimous decision rout – 100-90 on all three scorecards – Holm defeated a fighter 13 years her junior in Mexico’s Yolanda Vega and strongly positioned herself for a title shot at WBA lightweight titleholder Stephanie Han.

Asked if she left the ring Saturday with the confidence to regain a belt, Holm told BoxingScene, “I can.”

Holm, 34-2-3 (9 KOs), the UFC’s former bantamweight champion who knocked out Ronda Rousey by head kick 10 years ago in November, left the UFC earlier this year and opted to return to the sport where she won three division titles between 2004 and 2008.

“It’s been fun to get back, training with my same [MMA] team,” Holm said in the ring afterward. “I wanted to finish [Vega] early, but I didn’t mind getting 10 rounds.”

The 30-year-old Vega stood alone in her corner as the ring announcer followed Holm’s fitting ring walk to Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” by hailing her comeback, touting her 83 professional fights and calling her the most accomplished two-sport talent in combat sports history.

Now 43, Holm effectively landed power lefts from her southpaw stance in the first, then sized up Vega before clocking her with another left in the second. In the third, Holm got the better of their exchanges.

Holm’s footwork distinguished her from the lightweight contender, allowing her to skirt punches and land defining blows, such as another hard left in the seventh.

Signed to fight for Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, Holm is ideally poised to fight the promotion’s titlist Han while also taking great interest in the July 11 junior lightweight title fight between undisputed champion Katie Taylor and Most Valuable Promotions’ Amanda Serrano.

“We’ll see, and go from there,” Holm said. “I’m so thankful to continue this dream of boxing.”

Before keeping his record pristine through eight fights by unanimous decision scores of 78-74, 80-72, 79-74, unbeaten welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte was pushed to go past the second round for the first time in his pro career by Kevin Johnson.

“Being able to get those eight rounds in was something I was looking forward to – you always train to go the distance,” Iriarte said. “I learned I can get through a fight like that against a guy who fought [140lbs belt holder Richardson] Hitchins, learn and adapt.”

Flashing effective foot movement and fast hands, Johnson kept the bout a boxing match from distance through three rounds before Iriarte, a Golden Boy Promotions product from Bakersfield, California, made it a toe-to-toe affair and started hammering Johnson, 32, with right uppercuts.

Iriarte, 22, has dominated his prior foes. Johnson, 12-7 (8 KOs), presented a quality chin, especially when Iriarte delivered a potent right hand to the jaw in the sixth. 

Bantamweight Alexander Gueche improved to 8-0 with a convincing unanimous decision triumph over Vincent Avina by scores of 80-72, 80-72, 79-73.

Trained by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez cornerman Eddy Reynoso, Gueche came in heavy at 124lbs for the bantamweight bout, but Las Vegas’ Avina, 8-2-1 (7 KOs), agreed to let the bout go forward.

Gueche’s activity and punching effectiveness paced the 19-year-old Long Beach, California, fighter to the victory.

American Olympian Joshua Edwards posted his third knockout in three fights this year, smashing Dominicc Hardy, 6-4 (4 KOs), with a sudden right hand that forced Hardy’s right knee to bend behind him as he fell backward.

With Hardy so staggered before the 10-count ended, referee David Hartman waved the fight over at 1 minute and 3 seconds of the first round.

Edwards, 25, has packed on more than 10lbs under trainer Ronnie Shields, and Golden Boy Promotions is pushing for him to fight 6-8 times this year, Edwards’ advisor Lester Bedford said.

Rene Alvarado, 36, flexed his veteran skill and doggedness in delivering Victor Morales Jnr his first loss in a junior lightweight bout.

Nicaragua’s Alvarado, 35-16 (22 KOs), has fought the likes of William Zepeda, Lamont Roach Jnr, Joseph Diaz Jnr and Yuriorkis Gamboa, and he summoned those experiences to outwork and outland the 27-year-old Mexico native Morales, 20-1-1 (10 KOs).

John “Scrappy” Ramirez, of East Los Angeles, opened the card with a wide victory by unanimous decision – 79-73, 80-72 twice – over replacement opponent Josue Morales, who will fight again in two weeks.

Ramirez, 15-1 (9 KOs), typically fights at junior bantamweight but agreed to the bout at 119 pounds.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.