Former UFC welterweight Kevin Holland, who also competed in the middleweight division, retired from MMA earlier this month. “Trailblazer” made the announcement on his official Instagram page but not everyone is convinced the retirement will stick.
Including UFC President Dana White.
“So I’m retired, I’m officially retired,” Holland said during the launch of his new podcast. “I’m retired from fighting. I had a good fight, good payday, I had a good run. I see some of the people online: ‘obviously he realizes he’ll never get the belt,’ and my little psychedelic trip, that means I was wrong. I can’t be wrong on a psychedelic trip. I’ve lost coming out to Young Boy. That was my last hope, never losing coming out to Young Boy. Times are rough for your boy. But I’m really, really happy on the green side. Unless something super-duper magical pops up, yeah, I’m pretty happy with the way things are.”
Holland, 29, was mixed up in the UFC 279 weigh-in fiasco earlier this month in Las Vegas and claims he was paid beaucoup bucks to fight Khamzat Chimaev in a last-minute catchweight bout. “Trailblazer” quickly succumbed to a first-round submission.
That may be the last time UFC fans see Holland inside the Octagon, but that doesn’t mean the part-time crime fighter will be entirely done with combat sports, depending on whether or not former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub wants to back up this idiotic claim.
“Brendan Schaub, he’s always saying weird stuff,” Holland continued. “He said something that I thought was weird and I thought it was Schaub’s page but I guess it’s his people. I message him, ‘what’s up with what you said?’ and they were like ‘this is not Schaub’ and I felt kind of dumb. We’ve got to get some boxing rounds in for some of the fly stuff he was saying. No MMA. He might take me down and I don’t have time for that shit. That’s why I retired, I don’t want to wrestle anymore.. I think he’s down [to box]. He’s not a pussy unless he’s a pussy and then he wouldn’t be down. For sure, boxing, me, Schaub, weight doesn’t even matter in that situation.”
Holland ends his MMA career at 23-8 (1 NC) with 19 finishes.