Kevin Holland reacts after submission loss at UFC 279: “Khamzat Chimaev is one hell of an athlete”
UFC fan favorite Kevin Holland reacted after his submission loss at UFC 279, saying that “Khamzat Chimaev is one hell of an athlete.”
Holland took the fight against Chimaev on super-short notice after “Borz” was pulled from his scheduled UFC 279 main event fight against Nate Diaz after missing weight. Holland, who was originally set to fight Daniel Rodriguez in a 180lbs catchweight bout, was switched to fight Chimaev at the last minute, having to fight an elite grappler instead of a striker.
The fight did not go well for Holland, who was submitted quickly in the first round. Taking to his social media following the fight, Holland reacted to his latest defeat in the Octagon.
“Yo, guys. I lost an amazing grappling match last night, I mean fight,” Holland said (h/t BJPenn.com). “My bad, (Khamzat) Chimaev is one hell of an athlete. Still gonna be talking sh*t cause you know who I am.”
The loss for Holland snapped a two-fight winning streak for “Big Mouth” after he finished Tim Means and Alex Oliveira prior to it. As for what’s next for Holland, “Trail Blazer” said that he has a bitter taste in his mouth, and he’s requesting that he fight a striker next. Ideally, he wants to fight Stephen Thompson, but if he’s not available, he’ll settle for Rodriguez, his original opponent for UFC 279 before the crazy shenanigans happened.
“I hate ending the year like this, so I would love to go in there against a striker. I don’t know if I’m still deserving of a ‘Wonderboy’ fight, I would love a ‘Wonderboy’ fight, but if not a ‘Wonderboy’ fight, D-Rod, we were all the way on task to getting it done. We had to switch it up to save the card, so maybe we can get something nice and get it going and collect another check before the end of the year,” Thompson said.
Who do you want to see Kevin Holland fight next after getting submitted by Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279?
