Mar 30, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Kevin Holland smiles between rounds in his fight against Gerald Meerschaert (not pictured) during UFC Fight Night at Wells Fargo Arena. Holland won the fight. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Holland on Mickey Gall callout, “It makes dollars and it makes sense”
Kevin Holland has his reasons for calling out Mickey Gall.
Holland disposed of Anthony Hernandez with a 39-second TKO victory at UFC on ESPN 8, Saturday, May 16. In the post-fight interview, the 27-year-old dropped Gall’s name as someone he would like to fight next.
While on The Luke Thomas Show via SiriusXM on Tuesday, May 19, Holland said why he targeted Gall.
“He has a little name,” Holland said to Thomas. “There’s plenty of guys out there I could fight at 170, who have great grappling and no name. It would do nothing for my career.”
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Mapping it out
Holland drew attention for his callout of Marvin Vettori four days before his bout with Hernandez. After Karl Roberson dropped out of his UFC on ESPN+ 29 fight with Vettori, the Italian was without an opponent just hours before the fight.
Holland made it clear he wanted to step in for Roberson. He proposed a bout with Vettori and then another fight with Hernandez just three days later.
The Vettori bout fell through, but Holland impressed nonetheless by finishing Hernandez. The callout of Gall is just one step of a bigger plan for Holland.
“To drop down to 170 and instantly fight a guy like Mickey Gall, then fight a guy like Diego Sanchez, then fight somebody like Stephen “Wonder Boy” Thompson, then fight somebody like Michael Chiesa, then fight somebody in the top three and then you get a belt. It’s simple,” Holland said. “There’s a road map. If you follow that road map right there, I’m going to have a lot of followers when it’s all over and done with, I’ll beat up a few people with a name, you know what I mean? Now I beat a top three guy and there’s the belt. That’s the way to do it. And the only reason why you want to get to the belt is because it’s a bigger check.”
Making sense of it all
Gall is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Salim Touahri at UFC on ESPN 5 in August 2019. Gall went in-and-out of the win column in his last four fights. He defeated George Sullivan, but suffered losses to Diego Sanchez and Randy Brown.
Gall is a submission specialist with five of his six victories coming by rear-naked choke. Holland lost only two bouts by submission in his career.
The fight is a no brainer according to Kevin Holland.
“The only way I lose is when I’m getting choked out, right? The only way he wins is when he’s choking people out, right? Seems like he needed a fight. heard he needed a fight, so I figured, this makes sense,” Holland said. “If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense. It makes dollars and it makes sense.”
