“I’ve realized a lot of things lately and one of those is that happiness and stress are not necessarily correlated. A lot of people think that if you’re not stressed out, you’re happy, but I tell you what: this last year I’ve been really happy, but I have had a lot of stuff happen in my life in 2019.
“So you can count your blessings or you can count your losses,” continued Holm, who enters Saturday’s rematch with Pennington with a 5-5 record inside the Octagon and a 12-5 record overall. “If you count your blessings, you’re going to have a much more positive mindset and if you count your losses, it’s never going to help you get anywhere.
“I think what has helped me think more like that is that there was a moment in my life where if somebody was to look from the outside, they would think, ‘Wow — she has everything. She’s got stability here, stability there; she’s moving forward, she’s got this win,’ and everything looks picture perfect, but inside, I was unhappy.
“I chose to make myself happy, but when everybody else felt like I had everything, through some of those times…”
Holm trailed off, pausing for a beat to find the right words.
“There was a year there where I was sad, but everyone else seemed to think there weren’t any problems in my life,” she added. “It’s been a journey, but I wouldn’t change anything about it, other than that my goal is to never lose again; that’s the only thing that is a sore in my side.”
Nearly five years after their first encounter, Saturday’s rematch with Pennington once again feels like the perfect measuring stick for where Holm fits in the UFC’s bantamweight division.