Kevin Holland has an interesting motive for wanting to beat up Derek Brunson

At UFC 256, middleweight contender Kevin Holland scored his biggest win yet. Now he’s expressed his interest in beating up Derek Brunson… but not for any reason you might assume.

Throughout Holland’s still young career, he’s become somewhat of a knockout artist with 11 of his 21 victories coming via that finishing variation. By watching him in action, one can undeniably see he’s a striking showman.

Fresh off of a stunning knockout of Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, a familiar opponent to Brunson, Holland managed to put away the Brazilian with punches from his back. Therefore securing him an extra $50,000 as he picked up a performance of the night bonus along with the win.

As for the No. 7 ranked Brunson, there’s no telling if he’ll be next for the surging Holland. But the outspoken Riverside, California native has his reasons for wanting to put it on the middleweight staple.

“I want to beat [Derek Brunson] up because I don’t like the way he strikes,” Holland said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “It just looks awkward. It’s like a disrespect to striking. It’s sad that he’s knocked out strikers before with that weird striking.”

While Holland is red hot right with a 5-0 record in 2020, Brunson has been on a solid streak of his own since he dropped back to back fights with Israel Adesanya and the aforementioned Jacare.

Since then, Brunson has rattled off three in a row by earning unanimous decisions against Elias Theodorou and Ian Heinisch. Most recently he halted the momentum of the rising Edmen Shahbazyan via third-round TKO in August.

Whether or not the UFC will make these two square off next remains to be determined. But it’s safe to say that after Kevin Holland’s last performance that he’ll get a big step up as he’s now ranked at No. 10 in the division.