"I feel he owes me money for the blueprint" - Derek Brunson claims Marvin Vettori should thank him for method to beat Kevin Holland
Derek Brunson claimed that Marvin Vettori owes him money for revealing the blueprint to defeat Kevin Holland, and he may have a point there.
Taking to Twitter after Marvin Vettori's dominant victory over Kevin Holland tonight, Derek Brunson took credit for exposing Holland's weaknesses to the Italian fighter. In his fight against Kevin Holland last month, Brunson bagged a lopsided unanimous decision victory by taking his opponent down and mauling him on the ground.
In the headliner of UFC Vegas 23, Kevin Holland took on Marvin Vettori in a crucial middleweight encounter. Darren Till was initially supposed to fight Vettori at the event but after breaking his collarbone in training, Holland stepped in on short notice. Holland headed into the fight on the back of a disappointing unanimous decision loss against Derek Brunson.
Why has Kevin Holland been struggling inside the octagon lately?
Less than a month after his loss to Brunson, Kevin Holland couldn't have worked on his weaknesses and Vettori took advantage of that. Since the fight against Brunson, the obvious holes in Kevin Holland's game have been exposed to the world. Holland doesn't have a great takedown defense and is susceptible to frequent takedowns in a fight.
Vettori's game plan was to pressure Kevin Holland so that he has his back against the fence and nowhere to escape from there. Once he got the positioning right, Vettori would time and again shoot for a double-leg and Kevin Holland would crumble every single time.
This resulted in five rounds of complete domination on the ground for Vettori while Holland struggled to get back on his feet. The fight ended in a unanimous decision victory for Vettori. During the fight, former fighter and now color commentator Daniel Cormier spoke in detail about the obvious errors in Holland's takedown defense and how Vettori used that to his advantage.
The going just got a lot tougher for 2020's breakthrough star Kevin Holland. Having gone 5-0 inside the octagon last year, Trailblazer has a woeful 0-2 record in 2021 thus far. He must now get back to the drawing board, work on his weaknesses and start afresh.