Germaine De Randamie made UFC history at UFC 208 when she defeated former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Holly Holm to become the first ever UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion.
Title win aside, De Randamie believes that the hand surgery she talked about with Joe Rogan after her fight is inevitable at this point.
“The doctor told me it’s something I can’t avoid,” De Randamie said during a media teleconference. “I don’t want to have permanent damage, so that’s something I want to figure out, if I have to do it now or I can do it at a later stage.”
De Randamie’s title win didn’t come without controversy, mainly illegal blows thrown by the champion after round’s two and three.
The champion feels that the blows were not illegal though and that when everything was thrown, she was in the heat of the moment.
“Sometimes when you’re in the heat of the moment, you’re in the fight,” she said. “You get hit, and you hit somebody. It was absolutely never intentional, and that’s what upsets me me so much, people saying I’m a dirty fighter. But I’m not a dirty fighter. It really hurts me when people say that. I truly respect Holly, the UFC and Holly’s camp. It’s sad that things like this have happened.”
De Randamie may have felt that the alleged illegal shots weren't illegal in her mind, but Holm feels the opposite about them, which is why she recently sent an appeal to the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) to have the fight either ruled a draw (due to the potential point deductions) or ruled a no contest. If the NYSAC agrees with Holm and goes with either option (Draw/No Contest) that would mean that De Randamie would be stripped of the UFC Women's Featherweight Title and the UFC would have to crown a new champion, either using Holm and De Randamie again, or a different combination of fighters.
De Randamie has only suffered a single defeat in the UFC, that came to current UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes at UFC Fights For The Troops III.
