UFC legend Michael Bisping doesn’t believe Kevin Holland is fully retired: ‘He’s in the prime of his life’
Michael Bisping does not see UFC 279 as the last time we see Kevin Holland in action.
On Thursday, Holland posted a message on Instagram, teasing his possible retirement from MMA. Considering he’s not even 30 years old and a rising star in the UFC, retirement would be a shocking turn of events from Holland, but Bisping doubts it’s real.
“That’s bulls***,” said Bisping on his Believe You Me podcast. “That’s bulls***. Kevin Holland is a great fighter, he’s very well-known, he was the 2020 Fighter of the Year. He’s a fan favorite, he’s making money, he loves shiny things — I’m talking about gold and jewelry and stuff like that, and he wants to buy a lot more of it — and he’s in the prime of his life. If he was quitting, walking away, he would at least jazz it up a little touch, as opposed to using a font last seen on an Atari f****** game system. What is that font?! There’s no way. He’s a very stylish guy, he’s not announcing his retirement in a font from a ZX Spectrum.
Bisping understands the ups and downs of being a professional fighter better than most, having overcome numerous setbacks in his career before finally breaking through to win the middleweight title at UFC 199. And so, if that really is what’s going on with Holland now, Bisping offers some advice to “Big Mouth.”
“Of course there is [doubt], there always is, but you’ve got two choices,” Bisping said. “You can say, ‘I’m not good enough. I’m going to quit. I’m going to walk away and find something else to do with my life.’ Or you can say, ‘Right, OK, I’ve got work to do. I’ve realized I have deficiencies in certain areas, and I’m going to fight. This is what I’m good at. This is what I was born to do, this is what I am destined to be.’ And you learn from those losses. It’s such a f****** cliche. We always talk about the losses and how you learn from them, but it’s truly that. Maybe he’s not messing around. Maybe on a whim he put that out there, maybe he’s doubting himself. But if you truly want to do this, you’re going to have that. And it’s not the wins that define you, it’s the losses and how you rebound from them.”
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