Daniel Cormier on Kevin Holland submitting online troll - "Sometimes you gotta put people in their place"
Daniel Cormier thinks Kevin Holland did the right thing by submitting an online troll who challenged him to a grappling match. A man named Jayden Parker said he was a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and claimed he'd easily beat Holland in a grappling encounter.
Holland accepted the challenge and invited the man to his gym for a grappling session. He even took care of Parker's travel expenses. As expected, the match didn't last long as Holland methodically stuffed a takedown attempt and forced the challenger to tap out to a modified D'Arce choke.
Kevin Holland vs a troll from his Instagram DM’s https://t.co/B1fPkrbg8U
In the latest episode of the DC & RC podcast, Cormier explained why it was necessary for Holland to put the troll in his place. According to 'DC', fans often disrespect fighters online and while criticism of fighters is inevitable, people should draw the line somewhere:
"Sometimes you gotta put people in their place... The way that people talk to athletes, it's so disrespectful at times that you could not imagine this kid going in there and training with Kevin, right? Because they see Kevin getting taken down by these professionals, they all think they can take him down. He just slammed, he sprawled that takedown out so easy, it was pathetic... this isn't Kevin Holland fresh, he's been through an entire jiu-jitsu session and he submits the kid."
Check out the podcast below:
Kevin Holland's takedown defense has been questioned in the past
Primarily a striker, Kevin Holland has often been criticized for his lack of grappling skills. His fights against Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori proved that 'Trailblazer' is vulnerable to being taken down in fights.
49-46 Marvin Vettori. Kevin Holland’s kryptonite in the form of takedown defense comes back to haunt him once again. Records are being set because of it.
In his bout against Brunson in March 2021, Holland was taken down six times. A month later, the California native incredibly got taken down 11 times during his fight against Vettori. It was evident from these bouts that the middleweight is not very comfortable on the ground.
Love Kevin Holland, but until he gets his takedown defense together, he’s not ready for the big time fights.
Holland is winless in his last three fights inside the octagon and will be hoping to get back in the win column in his next bout. He is scheduled to take on Alex Oliveira at UFC 272 in March.