Sport

UFC 272: Kevin Holland on internet trolls, fighting at welterweight and facing Alex Oliveira

Kevin Holland, a UFC fighter, has a novel approach to dealing with trolls: he welcomes them to his gym.

The American, who battles Alex Oliveira in a welterweight match at UFC 272 in Las Vegas on Saturday, believes that having hecklers over for some MMA action can teach them how to be humble.

"I'm not looking to damage anyone - I don't fight these guys, I just whack them," Holland, 29, told BBC Sport.

"I believe they can learn some important things."

"It would be fantastic to get trolls to participate in martial arts for a few months and make them more humble in their minds."

Holland has uploaded video of himself competing against the trolls via YouTube.

Despite his conviction that releasing the tapes would have the opposite impact, the amount of hostile messages in his mailbox has increased.

He claims that whether or not the abuse affects him depends on his attitude that day.

"Some absolutely irritate me. "It will irritate me if you call me anything other than my name," Holland explained.

"But, at the end of the day, I call them by their first names as well; it's all part of the game." Some days you don't enjoy it, and other days you're sitting on the pooper and having the best laugh of your life.

"But, boys, you don't have to disrespect me in order to get a session with me. All you have to do is go to the gym and tell my coach that you'd want to work with me, and that's why you're there."
Holland will be fighting at welterweight for the first time in five years when he takes on Brazil's Oliveira.

After a breakout year in 2020, when he won five times to tie the UFC record for most wins in a calendar year, he struggled in 2021, losing twice and having another fight called off due to a no-contest.

He claims that the manner of his defeats, in which he was out-wrestled, affected his choice to drop to welterweight.

"I was like 'I'll give it a shot' after dropping the ball to [Marvin] Vettori and [Derek] Brunson - two guys who can't strike to save their lives but have just enough strength to hold a skinny person like me down," Holland remarked.

"I'm ready to compete at welterweight if the weight cut and everything goes well, and I go out there and do my thing."

"At 185 pounds, the only time I really lost was when I was taken down, so as long as these guys don't have a desire to hold me down and seek for a submission, you won't see many disadvantages."

Holland, who was born in California but now resides in Texas, is ecstatic at the possibility of meeting Oliveira, 34.

"To me, he's a sports legend and a game legend," Holland remarked.
"There's no bad blood here, but I've got a £50,000 bounty [fight of the night bonus] on his head, so I've got to collect that."

"You know what they say down south, man - when you live in a place where there are a lot of cowboys: 'The only way to become a true cowboy is to take out a cowboy.'"

 

site_map