Kevin Holland planning move to 170lbs, wants Jorge Masvidal’s BMF title

UFC middleweight contender Kevin Holland is planning a move down to 170lbs at some point and says he’s coming for Jorge Masvidal’s BMF title.

Holland is one of the hottest fighters in the UFC middleweight division these days. Since making his promotional debut in 2018, Holland has gone 7-2 overall in the Octagon. But 2020, in particular, has been a good year for him. Since the UFC returned from the coronavirus pandemic in May, Holland has gone 4-0 with wins over Anthony Hernandez, Joaquin Buckley, Darren Stewart, and Charlie Ontiveros. He will fight for the fifth time in seven months when he takes on Jack Hermansson at UFC Fight Night in December.

With a win over Hermansson, one of the top-five middleweights in the game today, Holland will inch one step closer toward title contention at 185lbs. With UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya moving up to 205lbs to fight Jan Blachowicz, though, Holland may have to wait a while to fight for the belt at 185lbs. However, it appears that Holland won’t just sit and wait around for Adesanya. No, the “Trail Blazer” has other plans instead.

Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Holland said he has no interest in fighting for an interim belt at 185lbs. If Adesanya is going to move up to 205lbs, then Holland says he will move down to welterweight, where he said he wants to fight Jorge Masvidal for the BMF belt.

“I walk around at 196lbs, you know? I have leverage, I’m tall, I’m long. So I can fight at
(middleweight) no problem. But if they had a 175lbs weight class I’d be there. But they do have two belts at 170lbs and I think one belt doesn’t belong at welterweight, you know what I mean? I think you know what I mean,” Holland said.

“So, maybe I can go out and slap somebody after the fight, let everybody know that I’m really a bad motherf*cker and that I can get a BMF fight. That’s what I’m shooting for, not all this other sh*t, you know? It’s like, I’m going to put work to get the BMF title. While Izzy’s up a weight class doing his thing, I’m going to go down south a little bit, grab some straps, then come up to 185lbs and fight for a real belt. I don’t want to fight for an interim belt, that sounds ridiculous. I like Masvidal, but yeah.”

How do you think Kevin Holland would fare down at welterweight?