HOUSTON – Kevin Holland respects Sean Strickland as a fighter, but isn’t a fan of his extracurricular rhetoric outside of the cage.
Someone who knows a thing or two about talking, Holland (21-8 MMA, 8-5 UFC) recently expressed his distaste for Strickland (25-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) in an altercation at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.
Ahead of UFC Fight Night 200 in early February, Strickland revealed some words were exchanged after, he claims, Holland puffed out his chest. Strickland said he challenged Holland to a fight, but was turned down.
“I seen him at the P.I.,” Holland said Saturday at a guest fighter news conference during UFC 271 at Toyota Center. “He had seen some stuff online about murdering me, or something like that, if we ever had a fight. So when I saw him, I was just checking his energy. He said I had my chest poked out. As you guys see me on camera all the time, I have a bird chest. It’s kind of hard to poke this thing out. I walked up to the man. I wasn’t trying to say nothing to him. He was speaking to me like we were friends or something. I was just looking at him like he was f*cking crazy.
“He said something stupid, so I probably said something stupid back. A little words got exchanged. He said something about going to the parking lot. But if I’m not mistaken, there is a full-blown octagon and a boxing ring upstairs and we could easily make it a sparring session. That way, the UFC doesn’t lose money by somebody getting their head bashed in in the parking lot. I’m just saying, hypothetically speaking, of course.”
Holland would love to fight Strickland, but he’s a realist. Chances are, it probably won’t happen in the immediate future. Right now, Strickland is nearing a UFC middleweight title opportunity. Meanwhile, Holland is weeks out from his UFC welterweight debut. With time, things might change. Then, Holland will be down.
“I’d love to do that fight,” Holland said. “Sean is on a really good winning streak right now. Sean is doing really good waves in the middleweight division. I’m not a dummy. We all know Sean is probably close to a title shot. There’s not very many people for Izzy to fight at 185. Once Izzy knocks him the f*ck out and he needs a rebound fight, here I am, baby – another tall, lanky guy ready to take that ass.”
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