Kevin Holland’s five-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday after he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Derek Brunson in the UFC Vegas 22 main event.
Although Holland spent a lot of time talking to Brunson during the fight – even asking for advice from ex-lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov between rounds – he was unable to stay put, where he spent most of the 25 minutes.
Before that setback, the Netherlands behaved the same way in submitting four of their last five opponents, but the small talk did not seem to bother Brunson, who remained composed as he climbed the scoreboard to claim victory.
Then UFC president Dana White criticized Holland’s performance, not to mention the constant antics during the fight.
“I think it was a mental breakdown,” White told Yahoo! Sports after the event. “The only other thing I saw was [in boxing] when Lennox Lewis fought that guy [Oliver McCall] who kept her hands at her sides and cried.
“I don’t know what he was doing. I think he may not have been able to handle the pressure and just broke down mentally. I didn’t see anything like that. “
In addition to his conversation in the middle of the fight with Nurmagomedov, who was sitting in the cage at UFC APEX, Holland was talking to White too and that only further exacerbated the UFC president, especially considering what he watched unfold in the octagon.
“He wasn’t messing with anything,” said White. “He thought everyone here was his friend and he was just having fun.”
Despite White’s comments about the Netherlands after his presentation, Brunson disagreed that the conversation and antics really played any role in the outcome.
Instead, Brunson was quick to aim for his dominant wrestling showcase, where he took down Holland repeatedly during the fight and never really allowed him to get off the mat until a round ended.
“No, he just couldn’t stop the falls,” Brunson said of Holland at the post-fight press conference. “It’s funny. He kept showing his hips. He’s a very explosive guy, likes to run, but he’s long, so sometimes he gets away with it. So he kept showing his hips, and he was there to take it down.
“Dana White is one of those guys, he’ll be upset with you, I go out in the next fight and I knock out a guy and he’ll be happy again. It’s all good. I was [against] [Edmen] Shahbazyan and finished the boy’s last fight and I didn’t get a bonus for that fight. Main event. It ended him. Nobody was very satisfied with that. So, it is what it is. I came here to fight. Not every fight can be beautiful, but I’ve been here for a long time. This division was built on my back. Me with these crazy fights, so that’s what it is. “
For anyone to say that the Netherlands was acting bizarre or that his antics were something he suddenly introduced in his first main event, it is possible that they did not see him compete last year, where to talk to his opponents during the fight if became a staple of every performance.
The result may have been different, but Brunson argues that the Netherlands was still the same.
“This is what Kevin Holland does,” said Brunson. “He talked all the time. Anyone can change the narrative. “
From all the ways they faced each other on social media and in the interviews of the leadership of the UFC Vegas 22 main event, it seems that Holland and Brunson can definitely agree on at least one subject now that the fight is over.
“I’ll never stop talking,” said Holland in an Instagram post after the main event. “If you don’t like this, dukes.
“I will be me [till] I die. I never said I wanted to be the champion. I said I wanted to have fun and that’s what I did. To the next. “