Kamaru Usman criticizes Kevin Holland's corner after his second successive UFC defeat
Kamaru Usman has criticized Kevin Holland’s corner after Holland’s second consecutive UFC defeat in 2021. Usman suggested that Holland’s corner persons did ‘absolutely nothing’ in-between rounds to help him deal with the swelling in his eye.
Kevin Holland trains under head coach Travis Lutter and his corner generally comprises Lutter, Coach Shug and 'Cowboy' Justin Adams.
Reigning UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman took to his official Twitter account to put forth a tweet wherein he took aim at Kevin Holland’s corner persons.
Kamaru Usman’s tweet read as follows:
“There was absolutely nothing done in that corner for Holland to reduce that swelling. Not very good corner work here #UFCVegas23 #UFConABC2”
Kevin Holland put together a five-fight win streak last year and was riding high on its momentum this year until his fight against Derek Brunson. Holland got out-grappled by Brunson and lost via unanimous decision in their five-round middleweight matchup that headlined UFC on ESPN: Brunson vs. Holland (March 20th, 2021).
Following this, Big Mouth aka Trailblazer asserted that he’d like to return to the octagon at the earliest and get back into the win column. Opportunity knocked on his door in late March when UFC middleweight star Darren Till withdrew from a main event booking due to a collarbone injury. Till was scheduled to fight fellow middleweight contender Marvin Vettori at UFC Vegas 23 (April 10th, 2021).
The UFC, Kevin Holland and Marvin Vettori subsequently reached an agreement for Holland to replace Till and fight Vettori at the event. Resultantly, the Holland vs. Vettori five-round middleweight bout came to fruition and headlined the UFC Vegas 23 fight card.
Akin to Kevin Holland’s previous fight, he ran into similar problems in the Marvin Vettori fight as well. Vettori out-grappled and bested Holland via unanimous decision.
Moreover, Marvin Vettori dealt quite a lot of damage to Kevin Holland, particularly to his face, with a swelling forming over Holland’s left eye. The swelling is what Kamaru Usman has seemingly referred to via his tweet. Usman indicated that the corner didn’t do enough to help reduce the swelling, adding that it was poor corner work on their part.
Kamaru Usman is riding high ahead of his next fight, whereas Kevin Holland is now on a two-fight losing streak
Kamaru Usman is coming off a third-round TKO win over Gilbert Burns at UFC 258 (February 2021). Usman is riding high on the momentum of this impressive win as he’s set to put his UFC welterweight title on the line once again against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 (April 24th, 2021).
On the contrary, Kevin Holland’s 5-0 run in 2020 has been followed by a 0-2 run in 2021 thus far. Holland was touted by many as a potential future UFC middleweight champion. Regardless, Trailblazer is now on a two-fight losing streak.
The consensus is that Holland will have to string together another impressive win streak before he earns his long-awaited opportunity to fight for a UFC world title.