The former world champions hit out at Kevin Holland for his disrespect and mentality

Kevin Holland isn’t getting many wins lately, and he’s also not making new friends among his peers and mixed martial arts legends. The 32-year-old UFC veteran has lost two straight fights, most recently suffering a one-sided first-round loss to Reinier de Ridder at UFC 311.

RDR made it look really easy.

Holland has also lost four of his last five fights and six of his last nine. Two days before his loss to RDR at UFC 311, Holland was a guest on Jaxxon Podcast with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Bear Degidio. Some segments from the podcast went viral because of tension between Holland and Jackson.

Holland came on the podcast with what Rampage described as “bad energy,” countering a “bro hug” and seemingly challenging the UFC legend and former world champion to a physical altercation, which included several references to difficult and wrong weapons.

Holland was upset with Rampage over a joke the latter made on social media that apparently mocked Holland following his loss to Michael “Venom” Page.

Throughout the first part of the interview, Holland continued to challenge Jackson to a fight and began asking him about the caliber of his firearms. Holland further escalated tensions by telling the 46-year-old to “shut the f### up”.

To Rampage’s credit, he stayed professional. His calmness diffused the situation and made for a fun interview. During a recap of the segment, Jackson, who was on another former world champion, TJ Dillashaw, and Degidio, admitted he was angered by Holland’s disrespect.

“At the end of the podcast, I wasn’t mad at the kid,” Rampage said in the recap episode. “But right here at that moment, when I calmed down; I had to think. I really had to think. That’s one thing a lot of people didn’t see on the podcast, he came in with bad energy. I tried to go in to hug my brother and he pushed me away.”

Dillashaw slammed Holland’s behavior on several levels.

“He can’t talk to ###,” Dillashaw said. “He can’t come to her conversation with a legend across the table. I texted Bear, I was like homeboy needs to get slapped.”

Others chimed in with a similar sentiment. “For Kevin, talking guns and start you know, telling him to shut the f### up, I didn’t like that,” Paul Felder said as he continued. Michael Bisping’s Trust Me Podcast.

“I remember being at that age, being in the middle of a career, you know, and you have that chip on your shoulder, we don’t feel the need to impress or prove ourselves anymore, so Rampage was really restrained and he was like ‘Bro, what are you talking about?'” Bisping said.

“Dude he’s pretty average,” former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. “What do you want me to say? He just keeps doing the same thing over and over again, and the same thing keeps happening. The same thing! Good for those guys, I don’t know.”

The part of Holland’s performance that raised an eyebrow was his commitment to mediocrity in his sport. Most everyone believes he is talented. Let’s be honest, you’re not in the UFC if you’re not among the best fighters in the world.

However, Holland tries to sell us a bill of goods by claiming he doesn’t want to be champion. He says he’s more comfortable staying unranked and picking fights. In fact, he said his goal is to have more fights in UFC history, but he thinks there’s a lot of politics involved and expectations if you’re ranked or UFC champion.

Dillashaw, who has had some rough spots in his career, had a touching look at Holland cutting through what looks like a facade.

“He’s fun and entertaining,” Dillashaw said. “I heard him here talking when he said he doesn’t care about being champion. “There’s a lot of politics.” I’m like, well dude, that’s just an excuse because you’re never going to be champion. He will never be champion and I promise you that.”

Dillashaw highlighted some massive holes in his game and mentality.

“He sat here and said he doesn’t give a fuck,” Dillashaw added. “Are you going to be a champion if you don’t care? No. He’s talking about bringing training partners and going home and smoking. Just sitting here and listening to him talk, he doesn’t mind it, he’s just happy to be on TV. I think it’s too much work for him.”

Holland took to social media after the fight and admitted he has a lot of work to do to improve.

At some point, Holland is going to have to string together some wins, or the UFC is going to step in and stop his career goal with a layoff. I also agreed with Felder and Degidio. Both men praised Rampage’s maturity and resilience during the interview.

I left the situation with more respect for the legend than before.