Kevin Holland isn’t picking up a lot of wins lately, and he’s also not making any new friends among his peers and legends of mixed martial arts.
The 32-year-old UFC veteran has lost two fights in a row, most recently suffering a one-sided first-round submission defeat to Reinier de Ridder at UFC 311.
RDR made it look really easy.
Holland has also dropped four of his last five fights and six of his last nine. Two days before his loss to RDR at UFC 311, Holland was a guest on the Jaxxon Podcast with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Bear Degidio. Several segments from the podcast went viral due to the tension between Holland and Jackson.
Holland came on the podcast with what Rampage described as “bad energy,” rebuffing a “bro hug” and seemingly challenging the UFC legend and former world champion to a physical altercation, which included some awkward and misplaced gun references.
Holland was upset with Rampage over a joke the latter made on social media, which seemingly poked fun at Holland following his loss to Michael “Venom” Page.
Throughout the first part of the interview, Holland kept challenging Jackson to fight and began asking him about the caliber of his firearms. Holland escalated the tensions further by telling the 46-year-old to “shut the f### up.”
To Rampage’s credit, he remained professional. His poise diffused the situation and facilitated an entertaining interview. During a recap of the segment, Jackson, who was on with another former world champion, TJ Dillashaw, and Degidio, admitted he was angered by Holland’s disrespect.
“At the end of the podcast, I wasn’t mad at the kid,” Rampage said on the recap episode. “But right here at the time, when I got quiet; I had to think. I really had to think. This is one thing a lot of people didn’t see on the podcast, he came in with bad energy. I tried to come in for the bro hug and he pushed me away.”
Degidio called out the ‘disrespect’ from Holland and Dillashaw slammed his behavior on several levels.
“He can’t talk s###,” Dillashaw said. “He can’t come in her talk s### to a legend across the table. I text Bear, I was like homeboy needs to get slapped.”
Others chimed in with a similar sentiment. “For Kevin, talking guns and start you know, telling him to shut the f### up, I didn’t like that,” Paul Felder said while on Michael Bisping’s Believe You Me Podcast.
“I remember being that age, being mid-fight career, you know, and you do have that chip on your shoulder, we don’t feel that need to impress or prove ourselves anymore, so Rampage was really restrained and he was like ‘Bro, what are you talking about?’” Bisping said.
“Dude he’s so average,” former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. “What do you want me to say? He just time and time again keeps doing the same thing, and the same thing keeps happening. The same thing! Good on those guys, I don’t know.”
The part of Holland’s appearance that raised an eyebrow was his commitment to mediocrity in his sport. Most everyone believes he’s talented. Let’s be honest, you’re not in the UFC if you’re not among the best fighters in the world.
However, Holland tries to sell us a bill of goods by claiming he doesn’t want to be champion. He says he is more comfortable staying unranked and collecting fights. In fact, he said his goal is to have the most fights in UFC history, but he feels there are too many politics involved and expectations if you’re ranked or the UFC champion.
Dillashaw, who had some rough spots in his career, had a poignant take on Holland that cuts through what seems like a facade.
“He’s entertaining and he’s fun,” Dillashaw said. “I heard him in here talking when he was saying he doesn’t care about being champion. ‘There’s too much politics.’ I’m like, alright dude, that’s just an excuse because you’ll never be a champion. He’ll never be a champion, and I promise you that.”
Dillashaw called out some massive holes in his game and mindset.
“He sat here and said that he doesn’t give a s###,” Dillashaw added. “Are you going to be a champion if you don’t care? No. He’s talking about bringing training partners in and going home and smoking weed. Just sitting here and listening to him talk, he doesn’t have the mindset for it, he’s just happy being on TV. I think it’s too much work for him.”
Holland took to social media following the fight and acknowledged he has some work to do to improve.
At some point, Holland is going to need to put some victories together, or the UFC will step in and stop his longevity goal with a release. I also agreed with Felder and Degidio. Both men credited Rampage’s maturity and poise during the interview.
I left the situation with more respect for the legend than before.