Kevin Holland ‘not surprised’ by Sean Strickland’s upset triumph over Israel Adesanya, says “one person’s elevating, one person’s staying the same”
Popular UFC welterweight Kevin Holland is currently preparing to face off with fast-rising Jack Della Maddalena during tonight’s event at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Last time we saw ‘The Trailblazer’ in action, he produced one of the best showings of his career, dispatching veteran Michael Chiesa with a D’Arce choke in the first round.
If he can get past Maddalena tonight, Kevin Holland will probably climb up into contention for the UFC welterweight title.
However, as a formerly top 10 ranked middleweight, ‘The Trailblazer’ also likely had one eye on last weekend’s bout between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland.
That fight, which headlined UFC 293, saw Strickland shock the world by defeating Adesanya to claim the UFC middleweight title.
Correctly guessing that ‘The Trailblazer’ would’ve been an interested spectator, reporter Marc Raimondi recently asked him for his take on the fight, and Holland gave the following response.
“Congratulations to him [Strickland]. You know, it’s like a boxing range is different than kickboxing range...he spars a lot, he understands the things that are coming at him. So therefore he’s able to put things in front of a person’s face. So no, no surprise. One person’s elevating, one person’s kinda staying the same. You know, it’s like, it happens, you know, sometimes people accomplish goals, and they tend to, you know, stagnate a little bit. And then you have other people over there trying to accomplish goals and they continue to grow, you know? Strickland was trying to grow and it showed.”
Watch Kevin Holland discuss this below:
Kevin Holland Sean Strickland: Have ‘The Trailblazer’ and ‘Tarzan’ ever interacted before?
Kevin Holland and Sean Strickland are amongst the UFC’s most well-known trash talkers on the current roster, with both men willing to throw verbal insults at their rivals.
Holland is currently fighting at 170lbs, so a run at Strickland and the middleweight title seems somewhat unlikely right now.
However, ‘The Trailblazer’ and ‘Tarzan’ have interacted before, with quite varying results coming from their meetings.
Back in February 2022, Holland took to Twitter to seemingly label Strickland a “d**chebag” prior to the latter’s Fight Night headliner with Jack Hermansson.
This issue reportedly stemmed from a clash between the two men at the UFC’s Performance Institute, which supposedly saw Strickland challenge Holland to a fight in the parking lot.
Just five months later, though, Holland was heard praising Strickland’s trash-talking skills after ‘Tarzan’ was able to get under the skin of Israel Adesanya prior to UFC 276. This time, ‘The Trailblazer’ stated he was proud of the future middleweight champ.
Watch Kevin Holland discuss this below.