UFC President Dana White took to the airwaves following UFC Fight Night: Hall vs Silva and dived into the fights. The card had plenty of eyeballs on it as it was touted as Anderson Silva’s final fight in the promotion. One fighter who has used this platform was middleweight Kevin Holland, who fought on the main card against Charlie Ontiveros.
‘The Trailblazer’ finished short-notice replacement fighter at just 02:39 of the first round. What’s more, he became the first fighter to reach four straight wins in 2020 and only the third middleweight to win four fights in a calendar year. Only Gegard Mousasi and divisional champion Israel Adesanya managed the same feat in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
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Dana White speaks out on Kevin Holland
Following his statement win, Holland immediately went after Adesanya, who was in attendance at the Apex Facility. The long-time boss of the company was asked about whether Holland could jump the line and face ‘The Last Stylebender’
White said, “No, No, I mean listen, that kid is funny he’s exciting, he’s fun to watch, but yeah to leapfrog up to Israel Adesanya, I wouldn’t do that to him anyway. I like Kevin Holland, he needs some time.”
Additionally, White spoke out on Holland’s performance and touched on the scary slam that ended the fight. Kevin Holland walked through the shots that Ontiveros was throwing with relative ease and slammed the debutant on his neck for his troubles.
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“That kid came out and hit him with some big shots. He grabbed onto him and for those of you that were sitting there, he slammed the sh** outta that guy. I can’t the last time I remember a slam that hard. I don’t even know what to compare it to, Tito- Evan Tanner?”
Make it 4️⃣ victories in 2020!
🗣 @Trailblaze2top keeps his electric year going.
[ #UFCVegas12 – LIVE on #ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/RuxVTTAqDN— UFC (@ufc) October 31, 2020
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“Kevin came down on him with all his weight, like Tito and Evan Tanner. I’m thinking about the ones where I’m like ‘Oh sh*!’ Like it f***ing made me sick, like deep inside my fu**ing core, you know what I mean. That’s what tonight was, both slams that Holland slammed him with were scary.”
There’s no doubt that Kevin Holland has a bright future in the 185-pound division, and his win streak is impressive. From here on out, ‘Trailblazer’ will be focused on securing high ranked fighters to further bolster his profile.