Always ready to fight, Kevin Holland prepared for welterweight or middleweight, eyeing Belal Muhammad
Coming off his win at UFC Philadelphia this past March, rising middleweight Kevin Holland is ready to fight again, and he’ll drop down to the welterweight division to find a fight if he needs to. Coming off his most recent victory over Gerald Meerschaert, Holland is keeping his options open for his next fight, letting it be known he’s open to staying at middleweight but he’s headed to the UFC’s Performance Institute to prepare himself for a drop down to the welterweight division.
In an interview with MyMMANews, Holland discusses having fun fights, being open to middleweight or welterweight in his next fight, and responds to the callout of Belal Muhammad.
While fighting in the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ against Meerschaert, Kevin Holland wanted to “catch a body” not make love, as he told the media following his victory, and that’s because he knew he had to bring the fight to Philadelphia. Despite not being the most entertaining fight, Holland was happy with the end result, he just wanted to put on a show in a fighting city.
“Very happy with the result, make no mistake about it. That just wasn’t the type of fight I’d want to have in Philadelphia. If you guys want to grapple, we can grapple a little bit but it gets to a point where we are laying on the ground a little too long not doing nothing, it’s like either stand us up or let’s just stand up ourselves. All this holding on for dear life hoping you don’t get hit, I don’t like that.”
For Holland, while the fight may not be as entertaining as he has hoped for, he relishes in being able to beat his opponent at their strong point.
“I guess I’m that type of fighter, if you come for me one type of way, I’m going to prove to you I can do it better than you. I can do anything better than you can. I guess you can say it’s ego, when your ego hits you, you want to do whatever they’re doing, better than them. That’s also the martial artist in me, I want to prove I’m the better martial artist at whatever it is.”
Looking to continue his momentum from Philadelphia, Holland is willing to take a fight at either middleweight or welterweight, and with Belal Muhammad calling him out after his own win at UFC 236, Holland’s ready for a dance partner. When asked about the callout, Holland said he has no problem welcoming “Remember The Name” to middleweight or fighting him at welterweight.
“Of course. My manager likes me at 185, he likes the idea of me staying at 185 for one fight longer. We’ve always argued about 170 or 185. I’m a little skinny for the 185 roster, I have no problem being skinny but at 170, I’d be a complete monster. Tell Belal make no mistake about it, I still am the President of 170 pounds, and I’ll drop back down and give him the smacking of a lifetime if that’s what it takes, but if he wants to come up [to 185] and swim, I’ll drown him.”
As he prepares for his next fight, Kevin Holland is headed to Las Vegas to train at the UFC’s Performance Institute and in his time there, he plans on getting himself properly prepared to try and make the cut down to welterweight. When asked about his jump down to welterweight, the skull size of his potential future opponents seemed to intrigue him.
“The reason behind it is to see if I could go kill some boys at 170. I’ve always said that the skulls at 170 are a little bit smaller than the ones at 185. So I plan on going over there and killing some skulls at 170, so I plan on going to the PI and see if they can make that weight cut a little more possible from what it used to be.”
Letting it be known that there’s a good chance he’ll see the welterweight division by the end of the year, Kevin Holland is just looking for a fight and a game opponent to put on a show. He would go on to mention that if former welterweight title challenger Darren Till considered a move up to middleweight, he’d be happy to greet him at 185 then make the jump down to 170.
The possibilities are endless for Kevin Holland and he’s willing to jump divisions to find the most entertaining fight that helps him climb towards the top with each victory. Always looking to put on a show but even more so always looking for victory, there’s a reason Holland doesn’t stay quiet, because he usually gets what he’s calling for.
Full interview below:
