Kevin Holland’s short notice fight with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279 this past weekend always looked like a stylistic nightmare for him and indeed that’s just how it played out and now the ‘Trailblazer’ is eager to get a more striking-orientated fight for his next match-up.
“Guys, I lost an amazing grappling match last night — I mean fight, my bad,” Holland said on Instagram on Sunday after being quickly taken down and submitted the night before. “Chimaev is one hell of an athlete. Still going to be talking s*** cause you know who I am.
“Hate to end the year like this so I’d love to go in there against a striker. 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 we can get something nice and get it going and collect another check before the end of the year.”
Holland earned a lot of respect simply for agreeing to take the fight with Chimaev on 24 hours notice and is known to be friends with UFC president Dana White, so despite his loss it seems likely that his wish here will most likely be granted, with running the originally intended fight with D-Rod seeming like the easiest option to put together, though ‘Wonderboy’ is without an opponent at this stage too.
