Kevin Holland made a fuss at UFC 279 that culminated with the press conference cancellation, card rejigging a physical altercation and a retirement announcement.
Seeing as how this worked the first time, Holland is trying the same strategy again. This time Holland called out ‘favoritism’ in UFC and said he would hang up the gloves if Chimaev skipped the line and got a title shot against Alex Pereira.
Holland stated,
“If I wake up on Sunday morning and you guys have Chimaev fighting for 185 lbs. world title and he’s never won a fight at 185 against a top 15 fighter [then] I’m retired. I understand business is business but favoritism is favoritism. The kid missed weight, I had to step up to fight him after he missed weight and make the fight happen. I shouldn’t of had to do that.”
This weekend’s UFC card features a main event between Kevin Holland and Stephen Thompson. Holland has won two of his past three. However, his most recent defeat came at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev.
Holland is not ranked among the top 15 after switching from middleweight to welterweight. However, he may advance into the top 6 of the 170 lbs if he defeats Thompson in his third welterweight match.
Kevin Holland provided further details about his plans following this weekend’s big event.
Holland remarked, “I used to like to plan a few things. But now I’m at the point where like, whatever comes, comes. If nothing comes then I’ll sit at home, play Playstation and smoke weed.”