UFC star Kevin Holland has been booked to fight former title challenger Stephen Thompson just hours after he insisted he was retired.
Holland, 29, was submitted in just over two minutes by Khamzat Chimaev last month in their short-notice fight at UFC 279. The charismatic American was originally booked to fight Daniel Rodriguez on the card, but accepted a fight with unbeaten Chimaev on a day's notice after the Chechen missed weight by 7.5lb for his main event fight with Nate Diaz.
The fan favourite raised eyebrows when he announced his retirement after losing to Chimaev, but many were sceptical over the legitimacy of his claim. Holland doubled down on his comments whilst talking on the ' Real Eyes Recognize ' podcast, stating: “I’m officially retired from fighting. I had a good fight, good payday, I had a good run. I see some of the people online [saying] ‘obviously he realised he’ll never get the belt’ and my little psychedelic trip, that means I was wrong. I can’t be wrong on a psychedelic trip."
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'Trailblazer' added that said part of his decision to retire was because he lost despite walking out to a song by rapper NBA Young Boy, adding: "I’ve lost coming out to Young Boy. That was my last hope, never losing coming out to Young Boy. Times are rough for your boy but I’m really, really happy on the green side. Unless something super-duper magical pops up, yeah, I’m pretty happy with the way things are.”
Holland didn't fool fans for very long with his retirement promise as the UFC have announced he will fight against Thompson in the main event of an upcoming Fight Night event in Orlando on December 3. Thompson, 39, is a two-time welterweight title challenger who has lost his last two fights against Belal Muhammad and Gilbert Burns. The multiple-time kickboxing world champion is without a win since December 2020.
UFC president Dana White also wasn't convinced that Holland was done with fighting when he made the announcement, telling MMA Junkie : "“I think when you are competing in a sport like this, and you’ve done the things that Kevin Holland has done... he gets out of the fight against [Derek] Brunson and realises that he needs to work on his wrestling more. He’s an emotional guy. I think the emotions got the best of him. Just take some time, get back in the gym and whatever he wants to do obviously – I love the kid, whatever he wants to do, he can do but it’s a little too soon for him to retire.”
