Orlando, FL – UFC welterweight Kevin Holland is a self-described company man, but he’s serious about walking away from the fight game after his bout against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson at UFC Orlando on Saturday night.
Holland (23-8) is coming off a loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279 in September. Following the bout he announced his retirement unless a good fight came up. Wonderboy was a big enough name to get Holland back into the octagon. When asked whether or not he was now only interested in fights that featured more striking than wrestling Holland said he wasn’t sure.
“Honestly, right now, I don’t know what the f*ck I’m looking for. I’m just looking to finish getting paid and see what happens next you know,” Holland told the press on Wednesday.
Holland posted to Instagram following the loss to Chimaev that he was walking away from MMA.
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More IG posts followed until he announced his return in a way only Holland can.
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With the posts seemingly being more funny than serious fans wondered how serious Holland was about retiring.
“It was serious as hell. Super serious, and it’s still on the table. If I wake up Sunday morning after beating Wonderboy, and you guys have Chimaev fighting for 185-pound world title when he’s never won a fight at 85 at a top 15 I’ll retire. I understand business is business, but favoritism is favoritism,” Holland said.
“The kid missed weight. I had to step up to fight him after he missed weight, and make the fight happen. I shouldn’t have had to do that, but I did what I had to do. I did what I was supposed to do for a company man. So I’m sitting here telling you guys now.”
Holland seems tired of the push the UFC seems to be giving Chimaev specially after missing weight in Sept. and he’s making it known.
“Certain things have to go certain ways. If they don’t go certain ways, we don’t get what we were promised, things that we talked about aren’t honored…yeah you might as well go ahead and give me my resignation papers and let me go home and f*cking smoke weed and play video games for the rest of my life,” he said.
Holland wouldn’t go into more detail on what those promises may have been.
Holland went on to describe what he saw as unfair treatment when it comes to opportunities for fighters including being put in the UFC 4 video game or getting preferential treatment from the media.
“I’ve always felt like this, but at the end of the day I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do as a company man. But that being said you can only work for someone for so long before you start to feel some type of way. And I always feel some type of way. I just keep my mouth shut. I think I work for a wonderful company. I think they’re a fantastic company,” Holland said.
“I just think that sometimes things get done, probably not intentionally, just probably because it makes sense business-wise. But then for us fighters who are a part of the business we get stooped on, we get f*cked, and we tend to feel like ‘goddamn, why did we get done like that?’. Maybe I’m just finally feeling like why did I get done like that?”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Kevin Holland above. He takes on Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in the main event of UFC Orlando on Saturday night at Amway Arena.
