Reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and middleweight contender Kevin Holland have been engaged in a war of words against each other for quite some time now. The verbal feud reached a crescendo when Adesanya made a ‘rape’ comment against Holland, which led to Adesanya losing his BMW sponsorship.
Kevin Holland addressed this during an appearance on ESPN MMA’s Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. On his trash talk with Israel Adesanya getting heated and Adesanya losing the BMW sponsorship over comments that he (Adesanya) made, Kevin Holland stated:
Israel Adesanya recently issued an apology for the comment. Meanwhile, Kevin Holland has emphasized that Adesanya was simply engaging in fight talk and didn’t really mean to follow through on the threat he issued against Holland.
Is a Kevin Holland vs. Israel Adesanya matchup a realistic possibility?
Kevin Holland’s most recent fight was a unanimous decision loss against Derek Brunson at UFC on ESPN: Brunson vs. Holland (March 20th, 2021). Kevin Holland has stepped in on short notice to fight Marvin Vettori whim he’ll face at UFC on ABC: Vettori vs. Holland (April 10th, 2021).
On the other hand, Israel Adesanya is coming off a unanimous decision loss against UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 (March 6th, 2021). Adesanya came up short in his bid to win the light heavyweight belt and become a UFC double champion. But he has since confirmed that he’ll be returning to the middleweight division and will defend his title.
Adesanya had recently expressed interest in fighting Darren Till. Nevertheless, since Till is out with an injury and Adesanya has already defeated most other top middleweights, a potential fight between him and Kevin Holland isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
This matchup could come to fruition in the future, but not unless Kevin Holland can return to the win column. And in order to do that, Holland would first have to get past the No. 6-ranked UFC middleweight contender Marvin Vettori.
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