Former UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson had hilarious conversations with Kevin Holland at UFC Orlando.
Thompson defeated Holland via TKO in the UFC Orlando headliner on Saturday. Just before the fifth and final round, Holland’s corner stopped the fight, and Thompson was awarded the victory.
Thompson and Holland put on a show in the main event in a ‘Fight of the Year’ contender. As promised, the two entertained the Orlando crowd with a standup war.
Holland is known as one of the most prevalent in-fight trash talkers in the UFC. This was evidenced in recent fights against Derek Brunson and Joaquin Buckley, specifically when he told Buckley he had a booger in his nose just seconds before knocking him out.
Holland teased “a good time” with Thompson in the Octagon, which both of them followed through upon.
Stephen Thompson & Kevin Holland Kept Banter Light-Hearted
During his UFC Orlando post-fight press conference, Thompson explained the content of his in-fight conversations with Holland.
“He told me in the first round, ‘Hey, I’m not taking you down’,” Thompson said. “I’m like, Alright man, sounds good to me.’ So it was kind of one of those handshakes we had in the first round that no one was gonna go down…
“He was telling me to slow down, and I was telling him I’m sorry the whole time. He was like ‘You got me good!’ and I said I’m sorry. It was fun, he’s hilarious.”
Thompson then revealed a hilarious exchange later on in the fight and alleged that their earlier ‘no takedowns’ promise nearly got broken.
“Whenever we headbutted each other, he was like ‘Oh, man, I’m sorry’ and I was like Oh, man, it’s okay, keep fighting. We had some fun conversations in there,” Thompson said. “At the very end he started to shoot I was like okay, I thought you weren’t gonna shoot man? He said ‘I gotta do what I gotta do’.”
Thompson is back in the win column after back-to-back losses to Belal Muhammad and Gilbert Burns. Despite being 39 years old, he showed at UFC Orlando that he still has what it takes to face the top contenders at 170lbs.
As for Holland, he’ll look to get back on track in his next fight after back-to-back defeats. Although, Thompson’s comments demonstrate that Holland intends to keep things fun for himself, his opponents, and the fans.
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