Apparently former UFC welterweight Kevin Holland is committed to retirement. Shortly after being obliterated by Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279, Holland announced his retirement via Instagram. While false retirements among the MMA community are nothing new, Holland claimed on his new podcast that he’s out of the Octagon for good… unless something incredible can tempt him back.
“So I’m retired. I’m officially retired. I’m retired from fighting. I had a good fight, good payday, I had a good run. I see some of the people online [saying] ‘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.
Kevin Holland Confirms He’s “Officially Retired”, Unless…
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.”
Some might point out that the timing of his retirement, coming so soon after Holland was clearly dominated by a rising star, is no coincidence. Kevin Holland would agree, but stressed that he bears no ill will towards the Chechen star.
“He put me in a very good spot in my life. We love that guy. I’m actually thinking about getting a poster of that guy hung up in my bathroom.”
Holland did, however, reserve a jab for Brendan Schaub, who suggested that the UFC 279 fiasco that led him to fight Chimaev was an orchestrated conspiracy.
“Brendan Schaub, he’s always saying weird stuff. 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 s***. That’s why I retired, I don’t want to wrestle anymore.. I think he’s down [to box]. He’s not a p**** unless he’s a p**** and then he wouldn’t be down. For sure, boxing, me, Schaub, weight doesn’t even matter in that situation.”
Do you want to see Kevin Holland return to the Octagon, or are his best fighting years behind him? Let us know in the comments.
