Kevin Holland vs Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson will headline UFC Fight Night on December 3rd in Orlando, Florida. Before UFC confirmed this fight, Holland just a while ago had announced his decision to retire from the sport.
In a recent episode of his podcast Real Eyes Recognize, Holland said “So I’m retired. I’m officially retired, I’m retired from fighting. I had a good fight, good payday, I had a good run. I see some of the people online [saying] ‘obviously he realizes he’ll never get the belt’ and my little psychedelic trip, that means I was wrong. I can’t be wrong on a psychedelic trip. I’ve lost coming out to Young Boy. That was my last hope, never losing coming out to Young Boy. Times are rough for your boy. But I’m really, really happy on the green side. Unless something super-duper magical pops up, yeah, I’m pretty happy with the way things are.”
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Holland’s decision to retire only lasted a few hours. But, did he really decided to retire or was he playing around, it’s obvious that the UFC didn’t finalize the fight against Wonderboy in a day. So why did Holland did all this is a question to be asked. Holland is a fan-favorite, so it certainly came across as a massive shock when he declared that he would walk away from the sport. Maybe he was doing all this just to get the fight he wanted. After all he has now gotten a fight that he always wanted nd it’s a major step-up in competition.
How will Kevin Holland matchup against Stephen Thompson
Wonderboy Thompson is one of the most experienced fighters in UFC’s welterweight division. A former title challenger, Thompson is widely considered as one of the best Kickboxers in the UFC. Although Thompson is on a two-fight losing streak, he is still on of the best in the division. Holland on the other hand has fought at the middleweight division for most part of his career. After losing to top middleweight contenders in Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori, Holland decided to drop down to welterweight earlier this year. He is currently 2-0 in the welterweight division, finishing both of his opponents under two rounds.
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Holland is currently unranked in the 170 lbs division, fighting a seventh ranked opponent in Wonderboy is certainly a much needed step-up in competition for him. December 3rd would be the first time we will see Thompson compete this year, while Holland will enter the cage for the fourth time in ten months. Holland is 2-3-1(NC) in his past six outings while Thompson is 2-4. This is certainly a must win fight for both of them. Beating an unranked fighter in Holland might not get Thompson into the title picture anytime soon, but for Holland it’s a high risk high reward fight that could get him into top ten of the welterweight division.