Kevin Holland suffered an unfortunate injury against Roman Dolidze at UFC 307 which saw him unable to continue. The injury came during a grappling sequence in which the American suffered a rib injury.
He continued fighting through the remaining round, but during the break ahead of Round 3, his corner revealed that Holland will be unable to keep fighting.
Following the bout, Dolidze was interviewed by Aaron Bronsteter, where he revealed that Holland had shared some choice words for him backstage. The Georgian suspected that his opponent was just frustrated at the outcome of the fight, given his respectful attitude during fight week.
Eric Nicksick, the head coach of the No.8 ranked middleweight contender, has now revealed that ‘Trailblazer’ sent him an apology several days after the backstage incident at UFC 307.
Nicksick was recently interviewed by MMAFightingonSBN, where he said:
“Kevin was chirping at Roman the whole time through the medical tent, and then it just escalated into Kevin saying some really not very classy things to Roman and Roman getting pretty pissed off. That had to get separated… To that it that route, I was pretty disappointed. Kevin texted me and apologized, I told Kevin [that] I wish it didn’t go to that extent.”
Kevin Holland’s coach reflects on pulling him out of Roman Dolidze fight
Kevin Holland suffered his first loss since returning to middleweight when he suffered a rib injury forcing him out of his UFC 307 clash with Roman Dolidze.
Whilst ‘Trailblazer’ was understandably frustrated by the result, he also admitted that the injury was extremely painful. His coach, Bob Perez, recently stated that his decision to pull Holland out of the contest was the correct one despite its difficulty.
Perez took to Instagram several days after the event, where he addressed the corner stoppage at UFC 307. He said:
“Our number one job as coaches is fighter safety, protecting your fighter. 87 UFC [fights] that I’ve cornered, this is the second time I’ve had to call a fight and it’s horrible… It’s our job to save them from themselves…Thank you all for the love and support.”
