Kevin Holland Ethnicity, Background & Tough Upbringing Without Parents

Kevin Holland may not be a champion in the UFC, but he’s got his own set of fans in the fighting community, especially due to his unique personality. The trash-talking sharp-shooter will be making his return at UFC 311 when takes on relative newcomer Reinier de Ridder. With as many as 39 fights under his belt, Holland is a veteran of the sport and has impressive experience under his belt.

As we all know, with all the fame that Kevin Holland has been garnering, fight fans have continued to express their curiosity regarding the middleweight fighter’s origins. Today, let’s take a look at the place that holds the roots of the ‘Trailblazer’. After all, ethnicity is something that usually decides the kind of skills one acquires. So without wasting any more time, let’s get right into it!

Where is Kevin Holland from?

Kevin Holland was born in the country that has the most MMA fighters in the world. Born on November 5, 1992, in Riverside, California, the 32-year-old fighter is an American citizen. As far as his ethnicity is concerned, ‘Trailblazer’ has roots in Africa, making him African-American, which is about 5.6 percent of the population of California according to data collected in 2020.

Also, several reports claim that ‘Trailblazer’ may have been born in Riverside, but he did his growing up just 20 miles away in Rancho Cucamonga. Thereafter, Kevin Holland would even move outside of the country and spend some years in Ontario, Canada. Now that we’ve established the origins of Kevin Holland, let us take a look at the details of his family.

Kevin Holland’s early life and family

Apparently, it wasn’t Kevin Holland’s own parents who brought him up. Instead, the UFC middleweight contender was raised by his grandparents. Unfortunately, there’s not enough available data on his parents but we could assume that both of his parents were American citizens themselves. While we don’t have the identity of his father, reports claim that his mother’s name is Stacy Holland, who has had a tumultuous history of incarceration.

Even Kevin Holland’s father has seen the inner workings of the prison complex. Meanwhile, ‘Trailblazer’ went to Los Osos High School and continued his education at Chaffey College. Holland often found himself in troubling situations when he was in school. But it took only one to make him get kicked out of his high school.

“I got into fighting by head-butting a security guard in high school. I head-butted a guard, I got kicked out of high school… went to juvenile hall… Got out of juvenile hall, and went to continuation school,” Kevin Holland told the UFC not too long ago.

Regardless of his history and background, Holland seems to have risen to the top of combat sports and is on a journey that is yet to reach its peak. But do you have any idea when this journey started? Well, let’s have a look at that front.

How did Kevin Holland start fighting?

The 32-year-old middleweight star’s life took a turn when he turned sixteen years old because that is when he took his first steps in the journey of martial arts. But was there any fighter who was inspired to become a UFC fighter? Well, his idol appears to be one of the UFC’s greatest fighters ever, Georges St-Pierre. It was ‘Rush’, hence, it’s no surprise that Holland has fought in the welterweight and the middleweight divisions of the UFC just like his Hall-of-Famer idol.

“I started training for fighting at 16 years old when I walked into a gym for a kung fu class. I thought I was hot stuff, but the trainer gave me a whooping,” Kevin Holland told UFC.com. Moreover, watching UFC 100 with his father helped ‘Trailblazer’ set the goal of one day making his way into the UFC, which he did and is now one of the most recognizable names among the fans of the MMA community.

Coming back to his business inside the Octagon, Kevin Holland needs to get back into his winning ways, given that he lost his last fight and hasn’t found consistency for a while. He’s up against a newcomer, who could be in his toughest fight against a veteran like ‘Trailblazer’. Share with us your predictions for their fight at UFC 311.