Stephanie Han spoils Holly Holm’s historic bid for her title

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Stephanie Han spoiled Holly Holm’s attempt to make boxing history on Saturday – and simultaneously scored the biggest victory of her brief title reign.

Han, a fighting police officer from El Paso, Texas, defeated the living legend Holm by unanimous technical decision to defend her lightweight title on Saturday at Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fight was stopped in the seventh round because of an accidental headbutt that opened a cut on Han’s hairline – not usually considered a dangerous location for a cut – at the 1-minute, 44-second mark of the round.

The three judges scored the fight 69-65, 69-64 and 68-65.

Han, 12-0 (3 KOs), admitted beforehand that she became a Holm fan after her UFC knockout win over Ronda Rousey, but she didn’t fight like she had stars in her eyes, neutralizing the southpaw’s lead hand early on. After a feeling-out first round, Han began to find the target with her straight rights in the second, as Holm increasingly settled for jumping straight in with her left power hand. Han, who was able to get her left hand to land at times, was too easy a target for straight rights as the fight went on, abandoning her jab for most of the fight.

Holm, now 34-3-3 (9 KOs), was fighting to become the first boxer to win a world title after being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. At 44 years old, she had not been a boxing belt holder since vacating her titles in 2013 to become a mixed martial arts fighter.

The fight was just the second for Holm since she returned to boxing last year.

The victory was the second title defense for Han, who won the title with a first-round KO of Hannah Terlep last February.

Punch stat numbers hinted at Han's dominance in the fight as she landed 87 of 341 attempts while Holm landed just 29 of 243 attempts.

Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.