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Khamzat Chimaev was supposed to fight Nate Diaz. Ever since that fight was arranged, fans have been fiercely criticizing the UFC, and even though Dana White defended the meaning of that match, we still didn't watch that fight in the end.
Khamzat Chimaev exceeded the upper limit of the welterweight category by almost 3.5 kilograms and Diaz refused to fight such a heavier opponent. Kevin Holland, who had a scheduled match against Daniel Rodriguez, became the new opponent of Khamzat Chimaev, and "D-Rod" faced Li Jingliang.
In the match against Chimaev, Holland lost after a little more than two minutes, and Chimaev easily defeated him. It was a truly easy victory for Khamzat, and Holland announced his retirement from the sport shortly after that fight.
The UFC has offered Holland a match against Stephen Thompson and the two are headlining the UFC's event this weekend in Orlando.
Holland touched on his retirement
“(My retirement) was serious as hell – super serious,” Holland said.
“It’s still on the table. If I wake up Sunday morning after beating ‘Wonderboy’ and you guys have Chimaev fighting for a 185-pound world title, and he’s never won a fight at ’85 in the top 15, I’m retired.
I understand business is business, but favoritism is favoritism. The kid missed weight. I had to step up and fight him after he missed weight to make the fight happen. I shouldn’t have had to do that. “I did what I had to do,” Holland continued.
“I did what I was supposed to do as a company man, so I’m sitting here telling you guys now: Certain things have to go certain ways. If they don’t go certain ways and we don’t get what we were promised, the things we talked about aren’t honored, you might as well give me my resignation papers and go home and smoke weed and play video games for the rest of my life”.
Khamzat Chimaev is lobbying loudly for the UFC to give him a chance to fight Alex Pereira for the middleweight title. The Brazilian is also showing some interest in that fight, but the fact is that Chimaev has two wins within the middleweight division, none of which have come against a ranked UFC fighter.
Holland is probably hoping that Chimaev will work out a match against such a high-ranked opponent before he gets a possible title shot.
