“He said something stupid, so I probably said something stupid back.” — Kevin Holland, matching that “Tarzan” energy.
A wildly outspoken UFC fighter who’s competed at both welterweight and middleweight, who beats up MMA fans, makes rash, emotional decisions and often gets accused of having a “mental breakdown” in and out of the cage?
No, we’re not talking about 185-pound champion Sean Strickland.
That said, “Tarzan” has some “similarities” with welterweight fan favorite Kevin Holland when you look at their respective approaches to the fight game, which includes their above-average activity, according to former middleweight titleholder Robert Whittaker.
“Kevin Holland though, where does he go?” Whittaker said on MMArcade (transcribed by MMA News). “What does he do? His career path at the moment is like [so up and down]. It’s crazy. I would have said, it reminded me a lot of Strickland because Strickland reminds me … like they have some similarities there in the way they approach fighting.”
Holland (25-10) is coming off a close decision loss to welterweight up-and-comer Jack Della Maddalena at the Noche UFC event last weekend in Las Vegas, his fifth fight over the last 12 months. His frequency is impressive, but it also left him at 2-3 during that span.
“It’s just, ‘Let’s just get in the fight, I’ll fight anyone. I’ll fight next week, I’ll fight this week. I may be at my best, I many not be.’ Honestly, personally, I like that mentality because it means you’re always ready,” Whittaker continued. “You’re always hungry for the fight and you’ve always got fight in ya. But it does show that if the fights you’re not ready for sometimes you lose, and the fights you are ready for you win in impressive fashion. And like I said, your trajectory is [up and down].”
Expect Holland to take a hit when the official UFC rankings come out later this week.