Kevin Holland was understandably upset with the outcome of his fight at UFC 279 where he lost in lopsided fashion to Khamzat Chimaev in the co-main event.
The fight ended without Holland landing a single strike as Chimaev shot for a takedown in the opening exchange before locking on a D’arce choke to get the submission. While he accepted the matchup against Chimaev on just 24 hours’ notice due to multiple changes in the card being made at the last minute, Holland still gave credit to the undefeated Chechen for his performance, although he still had to take a dig at how the fight played out.
“Guys. I lost an incredible grappling match last evening — I mean fight. Holland posted the following on Instagram. “Chimaev is one hell of an athlete. You know me .”
and I’m still going to talk s***.
The loss stopped Holland’s two-fight win streak since moving to welterweight after he looked better than ever in performances over Alex Oliveira and Tim Means.
Originally, Holland was scheduled to face Daniel Rodriguez in a 180-pound catchweight bout, which came together just weeks before the event was scheduled to take place. Rodriguez ended up earning a split decision win over Li Jingliang in a razor-close fight on Saturday.
Now that Holland is trying to get rid of the bitter taste of defeat, he would like to be able to fight at least one more time before 2022 ends. He hopes to have a better matchup with a strong grappler than Chimaev and could book a shorter bout.
“Hate it to end the year this way so I’d like to go in there against someone,” Holland stated. “I don’t know if I’m still deserving of a ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson] fight. I’d love a ‘Wonderboy’ fight and if not a ‘Wonderboy’ fight, D-Rod [Daniel Rodriguez], we were all the way on task to getting it done. We had to switch it up to save the card.
“Maybe it’s possible to get something good and start it, and then collect another check at the end of the year .”
Holland stated many times that he enjoys a busy schedule. This attitude doesn’t seem to be changing because of his setback at UFC 279..
