Newark – UFC middleweight Kevin Holland wasn’t trying to injure Michal Oleksiejczuk, but he almost had no choice at UFC 302 on Saturday night.
“Yeah Herb Dean’s fault,” Holland joked with reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.
“I asked him to stop it a little early, but Herb Dean was like, I got a little longer. I’m a little nicer to big bro. Big bro don’t f*ck around.”
Holland (26-11) caught Oleksiejczuk in a tight arm bar. With it being so early in the first round and both men dry it was a very tough submission to get out of. With his arm fully extended Oleksiejczuk refused to tap and may have in fact injured his arm before Dean stopped the fight.
“When I first put him in the arm bar I heard the pop. After that it wasn’t popping again and I was like I’m going to have to do a full-blown break so I kept trying to like Chihuahua scoop. Get myself underneath there, and then hit a good pull after that,” he said.
“Guy’s tough as nails, hit me with a good shot, tough guy. That guy didn’t do anything wrong to me so I don’t want any harm to happen to him. I definitely want to win the fight because I like both my checks, but no harm I wish done to him. I hope it’s truly not broke because he seemed to be a cool guy.”
Next up for Holland…well whatever he wants with his history of taking any fight. There is one he’d like to slide in for however.
“Hopefully (Vicente) Luque pulls out,” he said.
“And I get (Nick) Diaz.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Kevin Holland above.
