Twenty hard minutes were already past, when coach Bob Perez entered the cage to address and assess his fighter Saturday in Orlando.
Perez glanced at his fighter, Kevin Holland, and confirmed a growing suspicion things weren’t the way they needed to be for a fifth round to take place. Holland’s hand was debilitated.
After a brief conversation with his fighter, Perez told referee Dan Miragliotta to call off the UFC on ESPN 42 main event. If there were boos, they were drowned out by the cheers from those in attendance, who showed their appreciation for an all-time UFC battle between Holland and Stephen Thompson.
It’s not always a warm reception when a corner calls off a fight. But even if there was audible disappointment, Perez wouldn’t have cared because as he sits Tuesday back home in Texas, he knows he made the right call.
“Fourth round, he wasn’t moving. He was backing up. He just wasn’t Kevin,” Perez told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “Going into the fifth, I walk in and go, ‘All right, buddy. Last round.’ He’s like, ‘Bob, I can’t do anything with my hand.’ I’m like, ‘Do you want me to stop it?’ He’s like, ‘Yessir.’ Done. I was watching it. We were all watching it. We were all aware. I’m looking for big signs. I’m looking for him to be vocal with me.
“My primary job there is to protect him. I would do the same for you or any other fighter. You have to prevent. People can die in there, man. I think as fans, we tend to forget that. They can die in there. It could’ve been career-ending or permanent, permanent damage that could’ve been done to his hand. Thankfully, it’s not that bad.”
Losing stinks, Perez admits – and being the one bearing the responsibility of stepping in makes matters more challenging. But Perez knows and loves his fighter and has been around the block. The co-owner of Main Street Boxing and Muay Thai, Perez has coached numerous Texas-based fighters over the years, like Holland and Derrick Lewis.
With a wealth of knowledge, “Kru Bob” used it to analyze and determine there was no better way at that moment to show that than to protect Holland, who fought one-handed for the majority of four rounds after a break in Round 1.
“I’ve had fighters say, ‘Coach, I’ll kill you if you ever stop a fight.’ I’m like, ‘Well, you’re going to have to kill me,'” Perez said. “… My point that I’m getting to is I’d rather have Kevin mad at me for a bit, than him hating me for the rest of his life or his family hating me. God forbid something terrible, terrible, terrible were to happen, I wouldn’t want to hate myself.
“At the end of the day, you try to be as technical as you can and help them with all the instruction that you can but sometimes you have to play that father figure if that makes any sense. You have to be the protector. You have to save them from themselves, because fighters will fight until the end. That’s what they do.”
Holland and his corner decide to call off the fight after four hard fought rounds at #UFCOrlando pic.twitter.com/0QbvuNzD6S
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) December 4, 2022
Holland will undergo surgery Friday to repair three broken metacarpals, but fighting without proper defense or offense could’ve caused worse issues. At the end of the day, fighting is entertainment – but it’s also a life-or-death trade.
“I want to make it very clear: Kevin didn’t want out because he’s afraid or anything like that,” Perez said. “He couldn’t fight. Fighting ‘Wonderboy’ with all of your limbs is very difficult, then to do it missing your strongest weapon, it’s damn near impossible. His health is paramount. All fighters’ health should come first. Kevin is a father and a family man and at the end of the day he needs to be able to go home safe and to his family and fight again.”
Corner stoppages are a lot less populous in mixed martial arts fight culture than they are boxing. Perez understands many coaches’ mentality is to let a fighter go out on his or her shield. That’s the way he was coached by others during his come-up, after all.
“It’ll always be a 50-50,” Perez said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to the individual coach. I’m just the type of guy, when I was coming up, my coaches were hard-nosed, blah, blah, blah. It was different. I’m a different type of coach, but for the most part, I’m very positive and compassionate and am going to my corrections and get on you. At the end of the day, you know I love you and I’m going to be there for you.
“Some coaches are in it for the wrong reasons. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I really don’t. To each, his own. But at the end of the day, we’re there to work for the fighter. We’re there to help them with their careers and build our legacies as well. But yeah, I think it’ll always be the same. There will be coaches that will. There will be coaches that won’t. It’s really just a matter of who they are as individuals.”
It’s not black or white, Perez explained. There is no guidebook that says, “If X happens to a fighter, stop it, and if Y happens, don’t.” There will almost always be a debate in the court of public opinion. But as Perez indicated, a determination can best be made by a coach who knows and understands his fighter. Knowledge is built up with familiarity.
“If I was your coach, we have to have a relationship, man,” Perez said. “We have to know each other because at the end of the day, you are trusting me with your life. You’re trusting that I’m going to give you the right instruction. You’re trusting that I’m going to see certain things. You’re trusting me to make the right calls. One hundred percent, I don’t think the relationship between coaches and students or coaches and fighters can be this very sterile, clinical thing. There has to be love. There has to be compassion. There has to be that intimacy, that bond that you share.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 42.
