The unquestioned best-ever of women’s mixed martial arts continues to retain two belts. Amanda Nunes is the UFC’s women’s bantamweight champion and the women’s featherweight champion. While sights have shifted to her upcoming return to 135 pounds, she remains adamant that she will keep hold of the 145-pound belt despite recent claims that the division would be shuttered. In spite of said claims, UFC president Dana White is on record as saying that the division will stay active as long as Nunes wants to continue defending the belt. Without a wealth of prospective title challengers, the promotion has time to make an important fight to reinvigorate contention at 145 pounds- a rematch, maybe even for an interim belt, between Holly Holm and former featherweight queen Germaine de Randamie.

The two former champions (Holm held the bantamweight belt from 2015-2016 after her legendary upset of Ronda Rousey) first met in the main event of UFC 208 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Controversy surrounded de Randamie’s decision win, which awarded her the UFC’s inaugural women’s featherweight championship, because she hit Holm with flagrant shots after the horn multiple times. She did not face even so much as a point deduction. Matching the pair up again would therefore create an intriguing narrative to build on, as well as add to the relevance of the bout. Furthermore, these two combatants have some of the most name value in women’s MMA. To make a second fight at featherweight would not only tremendously bolster the division, it would also become a fight that fans want to see.

To that end, there is an argument to be made that if this bout comes to fruition, an interim championship should be contested. Amanda Nunes is very likely to defend her bantamweight belt at least once more consecutively if she is able to get past Julianna Pena on August 7 at UFC 265. To crown a veteran interim champion of name value to continue to move the division would only be a positive if the promotion keeps the weight class alive. If Holm were to win an interim featherweight belt, she would join Nunes in rarified air; together, they would be the only two women to hold belts in multiple weight divisions in UFC history. Additionally, if this fight were to materialize soon with gold on the line, the belt would be the first women’s interim championship in UFC history.

If the UFC wants to maintain the women’s featherweight division, this is unquestionably the fight to make. The high-stakes rematch element means that this fight can ensure the division is a talking point even if Nunes temporarily steps away. There has been much talk in fan circles of Holly Holm rematching with Miesha Tate, and while that fight carries plenty of value in its own right, pitting Holm and de Randamie together when each is coming off a big win (de Randamie’s was over Pena) with so much at stake is sure to revitalize the UFC women’s featherweight division.