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Kevin Holland is known for taking fights on short notice so it shouldn't be surprising to see him volunteer for another.
Early on Tuesday morning, it was revealed that Khamzat Chimaev was out of his main event fight against Leon Edwards. The hope was to keep Edwards on the card, and shortly after that, Holland took to social media to call for the contest.
"Hold up, so am I hearing the #ufcFightIsland hotel has a vacancy and needs a real man to come and do work January 20th?," Holland tweeted.
Holland has been fighting at middleweight, but he has hinted at a welterweight move for a while. He was supposed to fight at 170lbs against Daniel Rodriguez in May but had to pull out with a shoulder injury. He also fought at welterweight on the regional scene.
Back in November, he once again hinted at a move to welterweight and eyed a future fight with Jorge Masvidal.
“I walk around at 196lbs, you know? I have leverage, I’m tall, I’m long. So I can fight at (middleweight) no problem. But if they had a 175lbs weight class I’d be there. But they do have two belts at 170lbs and I think one belt doesn’t belong at welterweight, you know what I mean? I think you know what I mean,” Holland said to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
“So, maybe I can go out and slap somebody after the fight, let everybody know that I’m really a bad motherf*cker and that I can get a BMF fight. That’s what I’m shooting for, not all this other sh*t, you know? It’s like, I’m going to put work to get the BMF title. While Izzy’s up a weight class doing his thing, I’m going to go down south a little bit, grab some straps, then come up to 185lbs and fight for a real belt. I don’t want to fight for an interim belt, that sounds ridiculous. I like Masvidal, but yeah.”
Kevin Holland's 2020
Kevin Holland is currently 21-5 as a pro and 8-2 inside the UFC. Although he did lose to Brendan Allen last year, "Trailblazer" put all that behind him with a dominant 2020 where he went 5-0. Holland hopes to fight Derek Brunson in early 2021 but could step in to fight Edwards on short notice.
Leon Edwards, meanwhile, has not fought since he defeated Rafael dos Anjos in July of 2019. The Brit was holding out for a big fight, and his scheduled bout with Tyron Woodley in March would have been that, but the COVID-19 pandemic halted those plans.
Whether or not Holland will replace Chimaev is uncertain at this time, but it would be a very intriguing matchup.
