Daniel Cormier believes Kevin Holland’s upcoming fight with ‘Wonderboy’ is payback: “I think you’ve got to be very careful with using the word retirement”

Daniel Cormier has given his thoughts on the UFC booking Kevin Holland against Stephen Thompson on December 3.

In the wake of his loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279, Kevin Holland appeared to be toying with the idea of retirement – or, at the very least, he was all too happy to wind the fans up about the prospect.

The welterweight contender was left to reconsider his options after being taken apart by ‘Borz’ in fairly quick fashion, but in the blink of an eye after announcing that he was ‘retiring’, Holland turned right back around and got booked into a main event showdown with the one and only Stephen Thompson.

During a recent episode of his podcast, UFC analyst Daniel Cormier spoke about why he thinks the promotion went in that direction.

“On the other side, custom suits and craft services is much nicer that tackling and concussion or whatever else you may receive playing football or fighting. So I think you’ve got to be very careful with using the word retirement. But I believe honestly that this fight with ‘Wonderboy’ is payback. This is, ‘Here you go Kevin Holland. You fought Khamzat Chimaev under the circumstances that you did, so here you go, an aging guy with a big name, in a main event, for you to hopefully regain some of the goodwill you had gotten since going down to 170.'”

Quotes via Sportskeeda

If Holland can get past someone like ‘Wonderboy’, and do so quite convincingly, it’ll almost certainly vault him right back into contention at 170 pounds.

What do you think about the UFC booking Kevin Holland to go head to head with Stephen Thompson? Do you agree with the assessment made by Daniel Cormier? Let us know your thoughts on this match-up and more down in the comments, BJPENN Nation!