Roman Dolidze’s coach reveals backstage altercation with Kevin Holland after UFC 307 fight: “Emotions are firing”

UFC middleweights Roman Dolidze and Kevin Holland allegedly got into it backstage about an hour after their clash at UFC 307.

Dolidze defeated Holland by TKO (corner stoppage) on the UFC 307 main card last weekend in Salt Lake City. Holland suffered an abdominal injury just minutes into the fight, which ultimately led to his team throwing in the towel after Round 1’s conclusion.

After the disappointing end to their anticipated bout, things between Holland and Dolidze seemed classy inside the Octagon. But as the two athletes left the Octagon and went backstage, things took a swift turn, according to Dolidze’s coach.

Coach: Roman Dolidze and Kevin Holland got into it during post-fight medicals

In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, coach Eric Nicksick explained what happened after the fight between Holland and Dolidze.

“So they went back to medicals, I went out with [Aljamain Sterling], and I was giving a hat away to some kid that I saw, and then when I walked back to medicals, I guess Kevin and Roman… like Kevin was chirping at Roman the whole time through the medical tent, and then it just escalated into Kevin saying some really not very classy things to Roman, and then Roman getting pretty pissed off and then that had to get separated,” Nicksick said of Dolidze and Holland.

“Emotions are firing at that moment, and it sucks, man, because no one wanted to fight to end that way. It wasn’t our choice either. Kevin made the decision to tell his corner about the rib, made Coach Bob Perez make a decision about keeping his fighter in the fight, so we didn’t do anything wrong. So to take it that route, I was pretty disappointed.” (h/t MMA Fighting)

Luckily, it sounds like cooler heads prevailed between Dolidze and Holland after the incident. Both brawlers will look to get back in the win column in their next Octagon appearances.