Bisping doubts ‘prime’ Holland truly retired
The former UFC middleweight champion isn’t buying what the ‘Trailblazer’ is selling.
Michael Bisping doubts Kevin Holland is retired.
The former UFC middleweight champion responded to the recent announcement from the ‘Trailblazer’, who wrote he was ‘retired before 30’ on social media. The fairly tame announcement of the end of his career seemed so atypical of the audacious fighter that Bisping felt it should be dismissed completely.
“That’s bulls—t,” said Bisping on the Believe You Me podcast. “Kevin Holland is a great fighter, he’s very well-known. He was the 2020 Fighter of the Year. He’s a favorite, he’s making money, he loves shiny things — I’m talking about gold and jewelry and stuff like that. And he wants to buy a lot more of it. He’s in the prime of his life. If he was quitting, walking away, he would at least jazz it up a little touch. As opposed to using a font last seen on an Atari f—king game system.
“There’s no way,” continued Bisping. “He’s a very stylish guy, he’s not announcing his retirement in a font from a ZX Spectrum…I don’t think he’s retiring at all. I don’t know what he’s playing at.”
Bisping wondered if this announcement from Holland stemmed from his recent loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279 earlier this month. The 29-year-old was originally scheduled to fight Daniel Rodriguez but was paired against ‘Borz’ after a weight miss led to the reshuffling of the pay-per-view event on 24 hours’ notice.
Holland was run over and submitted by Chimaev in the very first round, which the ‘Count’ believes is the reason behind his post-fight blues.
“The reality is, when you lose a fight — and that was a big fight with a lot of spotlight on it — against a guy like Khamzat Chimaev, and you get beaten, you just try to stop being entertaining for a second and really, really look at it. Maybe he’s going through a period of depression right now. Maybe he’s deflated, would be a better word. He’s a great fighter with a tremendous amount of opportunity and maybe he’s gone out there and fought Khamzat and thought, ’S—t, wow’. That fact that he ragdolled me like that, with respect is kind of what happened. Maybe he’s just going through a little soul-searching right now. Who knows? But I’ve been there.”
If Holland opts to return, it sounds like he would prefer to have a striker in front of him. The Travis Lutter BJJ athlete challenged the aforementioned Rodriguez or a possible bout with Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson following his latest loss.