"I wasn't gonna get out of the USADA testing pool" - Kevin Holland tells Ariel Helwani if he ever actually considered retirement or simply tried to push the UFC for a fight

Kevin Holland recently gave Ariel Helwani a bit of insight into his brief retirement.

After losing to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279, the fan-favorite announced on social media that he was calling it quits on his MMA career. Fast forward to just a couple of weeks later, Holland has been booked for a December showdown against Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson.

The bizarre turn of events led many to speculate if 'The Trailblazer' was merely trolling. However, Helwani asked the welterweight star if he meant what he said when he made the surprise announcement.

Setting the record straight, the 29-year-old revealed that he sincerely considered retirement. During the latest episode of The MMA Hour, Holland said:

"So I had to sit down for a while [and] there's a couple of things in my body I could take care of. A couple of things I could do. So I was just [going to] gracefully bow out of this thing, take my little chippers, take my little checks and invest, do some smart things, work on some other things in life and you know be done. I wasn't gonna get out of the USADA testing pool or anything like that. I mean, I was just gonna be done for my own sake."

So what made him make a quick turnaround? According to Holland, getting an offer to fight 'Wonderboy' was something he couldn't pass up on.

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Daniel Cormier thinks Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson is UFC's reward for Kevin Holland

Kevin Holland was originally set to face Daniel Rodriguez at UFC 279. However, he drew the short straw when a reshuffling of the card forced him to face Khamzat Chimaev under unfavorable circumstances.

The way Daniel Cormier sees it, offering Holland a high-profile matchup against Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson is the UFC's way of returning the favor. During a recent episode of ESPN's DC & RC show, the former UFC champ-champ said:

"I think you’ve got to be very careful with using the word retirement, but I believe honestly that this fight with 'Wonderboy' is payback. This is, 'Here you go, Kevin Holland. You fought Khamzat Chimaev under the circumstances that you did, so here you go, an aging guy with a big name, in a main event, for you to hopefully regain some of the goodwill you had gotten since going down to 170.'"

Watch the episode below: