UFC’s Kevin Holland didn’t even get his meal comped after stopping gunman

Luthfi Prawiro

UFC’s Kevin Holland is enjoying the burst of publicity. After knocking out the veteran Alex Oliveira in the second round of his UFC welterweight debut, he took down an active shooter in a restaurant in Houston, Texas.

Recently, he recounted the story about the “craziest sushi experience” of his life.

The incident took place in RA Sushi in Houston late Monday when a man seated at the bar pulled a gun and fired a gun into the air.

Holland, along with several other men later subdued the shooter, who was then arrested and charged with deadly conduct.

“I was done (eating) first, of course, because I’m a bigger guy,” Holland said Wednesday. “I was on my second cup of liquor—nice and relaxed, having a good time.”

He noted that there were around 40 to 50 people inside the restaurant and a birthday party was going on. But when Holland was about to join in, he heard something off.

“You could feel the wind coming off the pop,” Holland said. “It was an abnormal pop inside a building. I turned to look over my shoulder real smooth, real slow. I thought it was a champagne bottle popping—I promise you I thought it was. I looked over thinking, ‘Oh these guys are turning up behind us.'”

He then realized that his assumption was accurate when he saw a scuffle to disarm the shooter.

“They were on the ground, and the direction of the gun was originally facing where we were sitting,” Holland said. “That was more alarming than anything, just looking around and seeing the gun facing toward us. That made me get so fast on the offense.”

Holland then charged into the clash and grabbed the shooter before putting him into a rear naked choke and choking him out.

“I helped the guy pry the gun out of the guy’s hand,” Holland said. “After we pried the gun out of the guy’s hand, I grabbed the guy, put him in my lap, put him in a rear naked choke. I was choking him out.”

But despite the violent encounter he had in Houston, he still felt safe to come back to the Texas’ metropolis.

“Nothing could deter me from coming (back to Houston),” said Holland, who lives and trains in the Dallas/Forth Worth area. “I love Houston. I love Texas. I have to argue which one’s my favorite between Fort Worth/DFW and H-Town. I don’t think anything could deter me from coming back, especially not some guy who seemed to be intoxicated off his ass shooting a gun.”