Entering his first fight of 2021, Kevin Holland knows that keeping the pace he did in 2020 will be difficult. Especially as he looks towards bigger fights, with the top ten of the UFC’s middleweight division.
So he has a plan. “I’ll retire and I’ll just transfer over to another sport, therefore I can continue to fight as much as I want to,” Holland joked during the UFC Vegas 22 virtual media day on Thursday.
Speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press, Holland, last year’s Fighter of the Year, assured those listening in that he will continue to stay busy. “We’ll figure it out. There’s always welterweight, there’s always taking crazy fights at 205. We’ll figure out the schedule. We’ll stay active though.”
This Saturday, he takes on middleweight mainstay Derek Brunson in the ESPN card’s main event. Brunson has had a solid run of late, with three straight victories of his own to Holland’s five.
“I feel like the move that he’s made with Henri Hooft has made him definitely a better fighter. His striking looks a lot better, he seems a lot more calm when he’s in there,” Holland observed of his opponent. “I think it’s amazing. But that being said, I don’t think he’s been emotional in any of his fights lately. So if you can get him a little bit emotional, you might not see the same Derek Brunson you’ve seen in his past three fights. You might see the Derek Brunson you’ve seen who was going up and down with his fights.”
Which isn’t to take anything away from Brunson. “That even being said, going up and down with the fights, people say that like Derek Brunson has lost to bad people. He’s only lost to really, really good people,” Holland observed.
Which means that Saturday’s main event is an opportunity to prove something for Holland. “It’s time to find out how really, really good I am.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 22 virtual media day scrum with Kevin Holland above.
