With a fight on Saturday, Kevin Holland regrets not being able to replace Borrachinha against Whittaker

K. Holland is currently number 10 in the UFC middleweight rankings. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram

Always willing to climb into the octagon, Kevin holland are frustrated at not being able to replace Paulo borrachinha in the duel against Robert whittaker, on April 17th. One of the protagonists of UFC Las Vegas 22, which takes place this Saturday (20), the North American lamented the fact that Ultimate acted quickly and scalded Kelvin Gastelum for the confrontation. In an interview with 'half day', the athlete spoke about the subject.

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“(The setting) was perfect. I'm already in shape for the fight against (Derek) Brunson. I could have gone in and fought Whittaker. It would make sense. I think Paulo Costa (Borrachinha) should have waited three more days to confirm that he couldn’t fight,” said Kevin.

Out of the match after contracting a bad flu, the Brazilian postponed his dream of regaining his status as a challenger for the middleweight title (up to 83,9kg). Analyzing the context, Holland, who is currently 10th in the division, stated that a fight against the former champion could bring him closer to a fight against the champion, Israel adesanya.

“They should have waited until I defeated Brunson, then I would have faced Robert whittaker in sequence. Now, Kelvin Gastelum Are you going to fight him and is Gastelum coming off three or four losses? Now, he won one and won a duel against the former champion. It's sh*t. They should have already fought, so I'm happy that they finally face each other”, he concluded.

Representative of this weekend's main fight, Holland is experiencing his best moment in Ultimate. After running over Ronaldo Jacare in December 2020, the North American reached his fifth consecutive victory, all last season.

Now, Kevin will have the opportunity to get closer to the top 5 in the division. To do this, the fighter must beat the experienced Derek Brunson, which appears in seventh position in the group.

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