Kevin Holland knew he was severely compromised.
After absorbing a pair of low blows in the opening round in his fight against Mike Malott at UFC Vancouver, with the second shot putting him down on the ground and requiring a full five-minute recovery period, Holland decided to move forward with the fight. It appeared at least momentarily like Holland might not be able to continue, although he eventually got up off the canvas and gave the go ahead to restart the fight.
In the end, Holland lost a unanimous decision, and he acknowledged that the low blow definitely had lingering effects until the fight was over.
“I mean it sucked,” Holland told MMA Fighting. “In the moment, it sucked. I didn’t want to continue at all but I’m happy I did. A better man for it. Now in the gym, somebody gets kicked in the nuts, and I’m like we’re not deducting a point, get your ass up, keep sparring. I mean I guess you could say everyone has iron nuts now. It’s good for them.
“I went home, I couldn’t drive my tractor, I couldn’t ride the horse. Hell, the only thing that felt good was good old chewy from the f*cking chew monster, other than that, that thing was hurting. It was one of those situations where it’s like I’m blessed I’ve already got two kids. Those type of things affect you. F*ck Malott but other than that, good to go.”
Following the fight, Malott claimed that he didn’t believe the low blow was as devastating as it appeared, but he was concerned that Holland might not be able to continue.
“I didn’t think that was a bad shot,” Malott said after the event. “OK, brushed the cup, I’m sure it hurt, it doesn’t feel great, but come on, man, no way. Please don’t let this be the reason this ends. We’re going to have to run this back because of a groin shot? Get out of here. Luckily, he’s a gamer. He’s tough. He’s down to keep going, so good on him for continuing.”
While he was able to finish the fight, Holland admits that he went home still hurting from the low blow and it actually took several weeks before he finally started feeling good again.
“After like two weeks, I was back on the horse, rode real slow,” Holland said. “I was able to drive the tractor again. It hurt to do it but had to man up and do it because we had shit to do. By the time the fourth and sixth week came around, they felt about natural.
“The trauma from getting hit in the nuts is still there. Any time anybody aims in that area, I’m like whoa, chill out! You guys remember back in the day in the [Joaquin] Buckley fight, he hit me in the nuts a couple of times, and I’m like bro, I’m trying to smack something after this. It never really affected me that much but for some reason that day, they were racking up.”
The repeated fouls earned Malott a warning from the referee, but he never faced any point deductions during the fight.
It’s become a touchy subject lately where fouls are involved and whether or not referees should penalize fighters, especially when a point deduction could mean the difference between winning or losing in a three or five round fight.
For Holland, he isn’t complaining that he got fouled, and Malott didn’t get punished because he chalks it all up as part of the fight game. As much as it stings to lose a fight, Holland’s been there before and one bad night at the office isn’t going to change him forever.
“It’s one of those situations, it’s good to take a point, bad to take a point,” Holland said. “Different refs give you different feels and you’ve just got to know who you’re dealing with. At the end of the day, my nuts hurt, but I’ve still got to man up. You’re in a fist fight. Like I said in the Kyle Daukaus fight, when Kyle Daukaus hit me with the head butt, it’s like if it was a street fight at that point in time, I lost.
“At the end of the day, f*ck it, it is what it is. I’m not Khabib [Nurmagomedov], I’m not Floyd Mayweather, I don’t have an undefeated record. I got tons of losses on that motherf*cker so you’ve got to show up, have a blast and hopefully I put the person down and put them down hard and put them down in a nasty way to keep me f*cking popping.”
Holland attempts to get back on track when he faces Randy Brown in a welterweight showdown scheduled for April 11 at UFC 327 in Miami.
Read the full article here
