As far as Kevin Holland is concerned, Israel Adesanya should not be considered a champion in the UFC after losing to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259.
Israel Adesanya tried to unseat Jan Blachowicz as the UFC light heavyweight champion at UFC 259 and become a double-champ in the process. In his failure to do so, Kevin Holland believes that he should have left the UFC APEX with zero titles that night. So when this “Trailblazer” was reminded of recent comments from Adesanya about how Holland would have more work to do if he beats Derek Brunson on Saturday, he considered the source irrelevant.
“He just went and lost his last fight. He ain’t the champ,” Holland said in a UFC Vegas 22 media scrum. “Right now, as far as I’m concerned, his opinion doesn’t really matter. I have the longer winning streak. He’s coming off a loss. I guess they could say that was at 205, but in my eyes, a fight is a fight…
“I’m down to go to any weight class that I can make it to. I think you guys don’t really understand what I say when I say I woke up today at 188 pounds. I got here at 192, 194 pounds. I’m a light guy. I’m already doing what Israel Adesanya tried to do against Jan Blachowicz every time I step in here at ’85. You guys just don’t notice it because of my frame. Now if I was fighting at ‘70 this whole time, you guys would be like, ‘Oh, my God. Now, he’s coming up to ‘85. That’s a big jump.’ Just don’t get caught up in the hype so much.”
To Holland’s point, he has competed in several welterweight and catchweight fights throughout his career. During the scrum, Holland stated that there have even been times where he had to stuff change into his pockets in order to make weight.
“Big Mouth” also had some parting words in the form of an accusation for Adesanya related to the swollen pectoral muscle the middleweight champ was sporting during his fight against Paulo Costa at UFC 253.
“I think Israel Adesanya has a titty, and he was doing steroids to get that titty,” Holland concluded bluntly.
Kevin Holland will be headlining UFC Vegas 22 this Saturday night against Derek Brunson in the main event.
