UFC President Dana White was surprised by Kevin Holland in the UFC over the main event of ESPN 21.
Holland (21-6 MMA, 7-3 UFC)’s five-fight winning streak was cut by Derek Brunson (22-7 MMA, 13-5 UFC) in a unanimous decision loss in Saturday’s midfield match at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas . .
Although Holland became known in battle for his in-cage talks and noisy deeds, he took it to a new level with Brunson. He spoke from the moment the match started, and even had a conversation with White and former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
White believes that Holland’s level of votes when he was picked up and lost the round to Brunson was caused by breaking under the pressure of the stage.
“I think it was a mental breakdown,” UFC President Dana White told Yahoo! Sport. ‘The only other thing I saw was [in boxing] when Lennox Lewis fought with that man [Oliver McCall] who held his hands to his side and wept. I do not know what he did. I think he might not have been able to handle the pressure and just broke mentally. I have never seen anything like it. ”
White was not the only one who thought about Holland’s antics. A number of fighters took to social media while the fight was going on, and while some were entertaining, others were critical.
Holland told the UFC on the ESPN 21 series after the fight that he is considering the decline in the welterweight division after his first loss since October 2019.