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As I watched the UFC 307 broadcast, a particular comment from longtime analyst Joe Rogan caught my attention. While Kevin Holland was in the prep center prior to walking into the cage, Rogan talked about how he would be so much better served if he started to take things more seriously and focused solely on fighting at 170 pounds as opposed to bouncing between the welterweight and the middleweight divisions. While I understand the sentiment Rogan was attempting to make and believe there is merit to it, I have to respectfully disagree with him.
Not long before Rogan made his feelings known, play-by-play man Jon Anik had mentioned how Holland got some of the biggest pops from the crowds that gathered at public events during fight week. Did that happen because Holland was once so serious about his training and rose to the tops of his division in the process, or because his unique personality made him a magnet for the fans’ appeal? If you’re reading this, you’re the type of person who already knows the answer to that question.
Clearly, Holland needed to have a certain degree of success to get any type of adulation. Rooting for the consistent loser isn’t something fans are content to do. They expect some sort of reward for getting behind a person or team, with that reward being a certain level of success. However, if that were the sole criteria, why was the Ultimate Fighting Championship so willing to unload Demetrious Johnson for a past-his-prime Ben Askren several years ago? Nobody has more consecutive title defenses than Johnson. Why isn’t Robert Horry talked about in a more beloved manner than Michael Jordan? Horry won more titles than Jordan, 7-6.
Popularity isn’t only about winning, and winning doesn’t strictly translate to larger paychecks. Take a comparison of Rafael dos Anjos and Conor McGregor. They have just as many wins in UFC title fights, with each man getting his hand raised in two of them. In that sense, their level of competition is largely leveled. However, dos Anjos also has 21 UFC wins in comparison to the 10 for McGregor. While I get the idea that dos Anjos is doing alright for himself in the financial sense, he isn’t doing anywhere near as well as McGregor. Throw in the fact that while the majority of Americans walking the street can identify McGregor, but most wouldn’t have the foggiest idea about dos Anjos. It isn’t strictly about winning. A big chunk of it is about personality and style.
For his part, Holland is a unique personality who has lived up to the idea of anyone, anytime, anywhere as well as any fighter has in the history of the UFC. He tied the record for most UFC wins in a calendar year in 2020 because he was willing to step up when the company asked him to, despite not having ideal prep time. The majority of fighters on the UFC roster would not be able to do what Holland did because of their need to have adequate time to study their opponent, make their weight cut and take things seriously.
Holland accomplished those five wins in the calendar year fighting at middleweight, the division most would agree isn’t his ideal weight class. He was willing to fight guys larger than himself—at least in terms of girth—and didn’t have to worry about the weight cut very much. In terms of preparing for opponents, Holland has always been more concerned about what he does well. It doesn’t always work out for him, but it eliminated any fear and hesitance that might have stopped him from accepting fight after fight. In other words, Holland became one of the more popular fighters on the roster because he did the exact opposite of what Rogan was suggesting he should do.
The reason for that is both simple and complicated. While Rogan’s advice was excellent, in general, there are always exceptions to the rule. We’ve seen enough evidence to suggest Holland is one of those exceptions. He started out his welterweight run soundly enough, beating Alex Oliveira and Tim Means before coming up short against Stephen Thompson. That was followed up with two more wins over Santiago Ponzinibbio and Michael Chiesa. Those victories came over respectable names—all have at least 11 wins in the UFC—but they also came over opponents who were well past their prime. Those four men have combined to go 5-9 following their losses to Holland, with three of those wins coming from Oliveira after his UFC exit.
Are any of those victories that much better than those Holland posted against Anthony Hernandez or Joaquin Buckley before entering their primes? Or Darren Stewart in his prime? How about a past-his-prime Ronaldo Souza, a former Strikeforce middleweight champion? All those wins came in Holland’s middleweight run before he decided to take things “seriously.” I can’t say definitively which group of victories is more impressive, but I certainly believe they are comparable. Thus, it’s worth asking if Holland is better served with a more traditional approach.
What made Holland special was his creativity and personality. While he was in the middle of his fight with Buckley, he was instructing his opponent on striking technique. Holland’s UFC debut against Thiago Santos was notable for his audible commentary during the contest. His victory over Souza saw him escape the grasp of the Brazilian jiu-jitsu savant and deliver some crushing blows while “Jacare” was still on his knees—a sequence I can’t recall seeing before or since. Holland was doing Holland, and it made him a fan favorite.
Fortunately for Holland, fans tend to maintain a fondness for their favorite fighters. After all, McGregor has won a single fight over the last eight years and remains the most popular mixed martial artist in the world. Plus, it’s not like all his creativity and personality have been sucked dry. There’s still enough of what separated Holland from the rest of the crowd to keep him from being an imposter. He’s still fighting with great regularity. In fact, Holland’s decision to return to 185 pounds is an indication that he’s once again just looking to have fun and accept fights that interest him. That may not have served him well against Roman Dolidze, but it worked out just fine against Michel Oleksiejczuk in June, when he emerged victorious following a violent armbar.
At this point, I feel confident in saying that Holland’s never going to be a title challenger. He has been rag-dolled by larger opponents at middleweight, and he came up short against the likes of Michael Page and Jack Della Maddalena at welterweight in the last 13 months. If he just wants to take fun fights, I’m all for it. This is coming from a guy who despises the simultaneous two-division championship bug caught by UFC fighters who were attempting to follow McGregor’s lead. Given Holland has proven he can win in both divisions, why not let him be a gatekeeper in both? After all, a gatekeeper doesn’t have the same responsibilities as a champion. If Holland can maintain the personality that launched him into the eye of the MMA world and continue to win on a consistent basis, I’d be more than happy to see him do whatever piques his interest.