Kevin Holland reveals his retirement is “still on the table” depending on what the UFC does with Khamzat Chimaev: “Favoritism is favoritism”
Kevin Holland will gladly go back into retirement.
Holland retired following his first-round submission loss to Khamzat Chimaev but quickly ended it to take a main event fight against Stephen Thompson at UFC Orlando. Although not many expected his retirement to last, Holland says he will go back into retirement if Chimaev gets a title shot at middleweight next time out.
“It was serious as hell, super serious. It’s still on the table. If I wake up Sunday morning after beating ‘Wonderboy’ and you guys have Chimaev fighting for a 185-pound world title, and he’s never won a fight at 85 in the top-15, I’m retired,” Holland said at UFC Orlando media day. “I understand business is business, but favoritism is favoritism. The kid missed weight. I had to step up and fight him after he missed weight to make the fight happen, I shouldn’t have had to do that.”
Holland happy to ‘play video games for the rest of my life’
“I did what I had to do, I did what I was supposed to do as a company man, so I’m sitting here telling you guys now,” Holland continued. “Certain things have to go certain ways. If they don’t go certain ways and we don’t get what we were promised, the things we talked about aren’t honored, you might as well give me my resignation papers and go home and smoke weed and play video games for the rest of my life. Open up a Twitch and see how I do.”
Of course, since Alex Pereira dethroned Israel Adesanya to become the new middleweight champion, Khamzat Chimaev has called him out. It would be a massive fight that both are interested in, but Holland doesn’t want that to happen as he thinks the Swede should earn the title shot.
As for Kevin Holland, he is returning back to the welterweight division on Saturday against Thompson. Since he dropped down in weight, he’s 2-0 with two stoppage wins over Tim Means and Alex Oliveira.
What do you make of Kevin Holland saying he will retire again if Khamzat Chimaev gets a title shot?
