Kevin Holland has just responded to UFC middleweight Joseph Holmes’s accusations. Holmes alleged that Holland and his crew attacked him while he was with his partner at XKO 60 in Dallas.
“They beat me up, they beat me down, they stomped on me while I was down. F*ck Kevin Holland, bro, f*ck that guy. F*ck that guy.” he stated on social media.
Holmes accused the UFC veteran of starting the scrap by getting in his way and grabbing him:
“And he’s like, he looks at me and then reaches his hands out like he’s stopping me from walking upstairs, and he grabs on my f*cking arm. So what do I do? I’m like ‘naw n*gga, get your hands off of me.”
Holland just commented on the situation as well but has a different recollection of the incident. He agreed that they met on the stairs, saying that Holmes was avoiding someone on Holland’s crew. So, he walked to Holland’s side of the stairs and the two were in each other’s path.
He released a video response explaining:
“Of course I seen Ugly Man Joe, not gonna deny that. He was walking up the stairs, I was walking down the stairs. He didn’t want to walk to the other side of the stairs where the guy that he was beefing with was, so he walked up my side of the stairs.”
Holland said that it was Holmes who started the scrap after he grabbed him. He said he was going to move but Holmes grabbed him and they both fell.
“Like I was gonna move, I was like ‘bro, chill out.’ As soon as I put my hand up to say ‘chill out,’ he grabbed me. Soon as he grabbed me, we almost went flying down the stairs. Quick reactions, neither one of us fell over. By the time I went to fix my coat, I don’t know what happened.”
Holland said that he broke up a brawl that Holmes got into after this. He accused Holmes of dragging his name into beef that he has with someone else. Holland said that Holmes just wants some clout, that’s all.
“All I remember is him getting in a fight, and me breaking it up. Sounds good, that’s the part of the story that sticks. All that other stuff that’s going on, that’s drama that you have with another man. That’s between you and another man. Don’t put me in it, dog. Don’t use my name for clout, don’t put me in your B.S.”
The “Trailblazer” says that he is ready to spar with Holmes for money.
He invited him to his gym and offered him $20k since he thinks that Holmes is too irrelevant for an offer from the UFC.
“When we got outside, I told you straight up — if you want to fight me, you can fight with me. We got gyms. You said tell the UFC to send a contract, I doubt the UFC’s going to send you a contract. So if you want to spar, you can spar me at my gym.”
“So of course I’m going to tag you and let you know. If you want to come to my gym and spar for $20,000, I will give you a chance to make $20,000. ”
Holland told Holmes that he can spar with him despite his hand injury from the “Wonderboy” fight. He gave the middleweight lots of options.
“[Let me] remind you, hand’s still a little beat up, but I’m good with one hand, and I’m good with my other legs, and I’ve got elbows. If you don’t want elbows because we’re in the gym, I think we can wear pads so it’s not too gruesome. If you don’t like that, we can do old school Muay Thai rules, ground rules, whatever you want to do, bro,”
But he also told him that “getting online and crying about getting in a fight with somebody when you’re a fighter makes no f*cking sense.”
He wants Holmes to “get over it,”
It is uncertain if the two will spar as Holmes has not given a response yet. He doesn’t have any known plans in the octagon though. Meanwhile, Holland is going to compete against Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC 287 in April.