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."
