Many people were sceptical when Kevin Holland claimed recently that he was about to retire from the sport, but now he’s doubled down on it by claiming that he’s “officially retired.”
“So I’m retired. I’m officially retired,” Holland said on his newly launched ‘Real Eyes Recognize’ podcast. “I’m retired from fighting. I had a good fight, good payday, I had a good run. I see some of the people online [saying] ‘obviously he realizes he’ll never get the belt’ and my little psychedelic trip, that means I was wrong. I can’t be wrong on a psychedelic trip. I’ve lost coming out to Young Boy. That was my last hope, never losing coming out to Young Boy. Times are rough for your boy.
“But I’m really, really happy on the green side. Unless something super-duper magical pops up, yeah, I’m pretty happy with the way things are.”
Holland said he made a lot of money for accepting the Khamzat Chimaev fight on a day’s notice, and now in addition to starting a podcast, Holland also says he’s looking to start up a gym in Fort Worth, Texas, but it seems that his competitive urges haven’t completely gone as he’s also talking about his interest in sparring ex-fighter turned podcaster / comedian Brendan Schaub, who had claimed that the real reason the UFC swapped around the fights at UFC 279 at the last minute was due to weak PPV sales.
“Brendan Schaub, he’s always saying weird stuff,” Holland said. “He said something that I thought was weird and I thought it was Schaub’s page but I guess it’s his people. I message him ‘what’s up with what you said?’ and they were like this is not Schaub and I felt kind of dumb.
“We’ve got to get some boxing rounds in for some of the fly stuff he was saying. No MMA. He might take me down and I don’t have time for that s***. That’s why I retired, I don’t want to wrestle anymore.. I think he’s down [to box]. He’s not a p**** unless he’s a p**** and then he wouldn’t be down. For sure, boxing, me, Schaub, weight doesn’t even matter in that situation.”
Still, some people remain unconvinced that Holland will actually stay retired for long, with Dana White stating last week that he believes it’s too early for the 29-year-old to hang up his gloves.
“I’m really close to this kid, and I like him a lot,” White had told reporters a week ago. “I think when you are competing in a sport like this, and you’ve done the things that Kevin Holland has done. He gets out of the fight with (Derek) Brunson and realizes that he needs to work on his wrestling more.
“So he dives in and starts working on his wrestling, and I think when what happened to him happens to you, I think you lay in bed at night and go, ‘Holy sh*t, how did that happen to me?’ He’s an emotional guy. I think the emotions got the best of him. Just take some time, get back in the gym and whatever he wants to do obviously – I love the kid, whatever he wants to do, he can do. But it’s a little too soon for him to retire.”
If Holland does stay retired then he’ll do so having compiled a 10-5 (+1nc) record in the UFC, leaving him with an overall career record of 23-8 (+1nc).
