Kevin Holland has seen it all during his combat sports career but coming off two straight losses ahead of his fight against Randy Brown at UFC 327 somehow feels different.
Because he’s always maintained one of the busiest schedules in the sport, Holland had earned more wins than losses but in a weird twist he’s actually endured back-to-back losses on five different occasions in the UFC. Each situation was different but deep down the part that stings the most about his recent setback is that the 33-year-old veteran knows he probably should have beaten both Mike Malott and Daniel Rodriguez, which would put him on a four-fight win streak instead.
“I’ve been here before,” Holland told MMA Fighting. “I’ve been here before with it not being good at all and the pressure was turned up. This time, it’s a little bit different. I’m here in a weird situation.
“I don’t make excuses but we could argue that I was on a four fight win streak or I’m on a two fight [losing] streak. The last two losses were tossups and at the end of the day, it’s like I don’t think this one will be a tossup. I’ve just got to go in there a little bit more f*cking pissed off. I got that in the back pocket.”
In his most recent outing, Holland dropped a close decision to Malott after he absorbed a pair of low blows, the second of which put him down on the canvas for a full five minutes so he could recover. Holland eventually continued but the damage was already done and Malott ultimately got the job done.
Between that fight and simply running out of steam against Rodriguez puts Holland in a spot where he not only needs to win but he’s never suffered three losses in a row in his entire career and he doesn’t want to start now.
“That’s very frustrating,” Holland said. “Made some switches, changed some things up and get back to it. I say change some things up but it’s not even really changing. I’ve kind of got to go back to the old school shit. I kind of got away from that in the midst of all this rah-rah so I just got back to it. It feels damn good.”
At UFC 327 in Miami, Holland draws Brown after he was initially supposed to compete close to home when the UFC returned to Houston in February. He took to social media to announce he was fighting Geoff Neal but then the matchup fell apart before it ever really came together.
Neal openly admitted he passed on the offer and Holland was understandably disappointed but he could only roll with the punches until the UFC came calling with a new offer.
“I had got a phone call saying they wanted me to fight Geoff and then I got a phone call saying ‘I didn’t know you and Geoff train together,’” Holland explained. “I was like we don’t train together. It was just a weird ordeal. We’ve talked about it and it just never happened. The way everything shook up, I was just like screw it, it is what it is. He went out there and it was what it was and I was like damn, it would have been a good fight to run back at that point in time. Especially in H-Town, it would have been big, it would have been good for me, probably not as good for him.
“Randy Brown was on the table for Houston and I told them that Randy Brown was a tougher fight than Geoff Neal, even though he’s not in the rankings. I wanted to have a tad bit longer in the camp for Randy Brown. There’s a possibility I could have fought on the Houston card but when it came back, he didn’t want to fight on the Houston card either. We were both liking the idea of Vegas but instead we got Miami. A couple weeks later but still great. A little bit longer time to get in shape. Pretty sure he feels good. I feel f*cking great. He’s been begging for this fight for a long time so he finally gets what he’s been asking for.”
Because he views Brown as a tougher fight — Holland already beat Neal when they first met back in 2017 — he’s cutting no corners for this matchup at UFC 327.
Between the opponent and the desire to avoid three losses in a row, Holland promises he’s approaching this fight with a must-win attitude and he promises to shine on Saturday night.
“I like to think that I computerize shit,” Holland said. “The longer I get with somebody, the better I should do. Unless they’re just f*cking A-1. I’ve been in there with Geoff Neal before. I know Geoff Neal. Randy Brown’s a new opponent so I’ve just got to go out there and figure out the puzzle.
“Maybe it takes 10 seconds, maybe it takes 15 minutes but the puzzle will get figured out.”
Read the full article here
