Kevin Holland used ‘Khabib scarf hold’ to subdue alleged car thief after wild chase

Kevin Holland’s fight at UFC Vegas 38 ended in disaster, but that didn’t stop him from springing back into action on Monday.

Just two days after his bout with Kyle Daukaus ended in a disappointing no contest for both fighters after a clash of heads led to a Daukaus submission win that was overturned, Holland’s coach Shug Dorsey shared a video on Instagram of Holland helping to apprehend an alleged car thief.

Appearing on The MMA Hour on Monday, Holland elaborated on how the incident began and the spirited chase that ensued before he was able to get his man.

“I didn’t really stop him because he got the car and the car was wrecked,” Holland said. “We caught up to him, we were driving through the neighborhoods. I was driving down the street, some guy comes zooming out the parking lot, some guys running behind him, he’s like, “Yo, he stole my car.” So I was like, ‘I’ve been in quarantine for a week. I didn’t get to finish my fight, so let’s go have a little fun.” I bust a U-turn and start going after the guy, he turns close to the same street that my coach is on, so I’m driving down the street, I’m on the phone with my mom, my mom’s like, ‘It’s probably a repo.’ I’m like, ‘Mom, if you see this car, you can tell. It’s not a repo.’ I’m like, ‘I’m gonna hang up and call the cops.’

“Instead of calling the cops, I call my coach, I’m like, ‘Hey, this guy’s driving through your neighborhood and he just stole a car. We should cut him off and we can catch him.’ And he’s like, ‘Alright, bet.’”

According to Holland, he nearly caught the alleged thief when the suspect swerved into a tree after nearly crashing into a house. Holland had exited his vehicle to approach the car, but had to return when the suspect drove off. Soon after, Holland was joined in the pursuit by the man whose car was stolen, who was now in a truck.

“I hop back in my car, I get to chasing them, we get to following them,” Holland said. “The [suspect] hits the street, boom, hits a little trailer that’s getting pulled with some lawn equipment and stuff on the back of it, so that totals the car. Once he totals the car, the guy gets out. The guy pulls up in front in the truck to kind of block him off. I pull up behind so the guy runs out. He starts going behind instead of going forward. He was going forward at first and then he turns around.

“I pull up, I got my coffee mug, so I’m like this time I’m gonna be prepared. I got my coffee cup. I’m chasing down after him and he reaches down to kind of go like this, I don’t know if he’s saying stop or what? I go like this with the coffee mug, and then I hit him with a little sweep. Get on top, knee on belly, hit him with the little Khabib scarf hold. He was like, ‘I can’t breathe,’ so that’s when I picked him up, put him on the curb. I didn’t want to be like the cop with the Can’t Breathe guy, so I was like f*ck it let’s just put him over here.”

Dorsey’s video was released Monday morning via his Instagram Stories and the footage (sceenshots of which can be seen below) showed Holland restraining the suspect as police arrived for the arrest.

Holland addressed the story on Twitter shortly after it went public, writing, “Hold up. Gotta go grab a [donut emoji] right quick” accompanied by a police officer emoji.

He also posted a Photoshopped image of his head imposed onto policemen to Instagram.

Holland isn’t sure how long the entire chase was, but he felt like it took “a minute and a half.” By the time the pursuit was over, all that was left for Holland to worry about was waiting for the police to arrive and making sure that the alleged victim of the car theft didn’t enact vigilante justice.

“When I had my knee on the belly of the guy, [the owner of the car] was really pissed and he was really p*ssed and he was running up, he was about to soccer kick the guy while I was holding him down,” Holland said. “So I kind of like hit him in the stomach and was like, ‘Chill, chill, chill. Don’t hit this fool while I got him down. I’m gonna f*ck you up if you hit him,’ and he was like, ‘Alright, cool.’

“It was smooth, it wasn’t that bad. I think it was a cool morning overall. I still got to do what I had to do, it kind of slowed me down. I was trying to avoid traffic going that way, so I really didn’t avoid traffic, just ended up being the same amount of time. Just had a little fun in the process. It was nice.”