Kevin Holland has finally answered Jacobe Smith, and the answer boils down to one word: why?
In a video posted to his social media on Monday, Holland took aim at the months-long callout campaign from Smith, the welterweight prospect who has made Holland his personal white whale. Holland opened by giving Smith a mocking nickname and then got to his actual point.
“The guy’s a stud wrestler, pretty fun fighter to watch when he’s landing those little in tight elbows and ground and pound, but what the f*ck is the guy worried about me for? I’m not the champ of the division,” Holland said, as reported by MMA Fighting.
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The beef has been mostly one-directional. Smith and Holland were booked to fight at UFC Oklahoma City before Holland pulled out with an injury. Smith has won twice since then, most recently a decision over Randy Brown roughly two weeks ago, and he has kept Holland’s name in his mouth the whole time. At one point he said he wants to murder him. None of that has produced a contract.
Holland also took a swing at the geography of the rivalry, which apparently has some Texas bragging rights attached. “Maybe he wants to be the King of the City, but I don’t even f*cking go to Dallas. I’m in Fort Worth. I ride horses,” he said. He added that he respects the wrestling community but has never been a big fan of shooting a double-leg.
Then came the shot at Smith’s résumé. Holland argued that Smith’s knockouts have mostly come against fighters fresh off the regional circuit, guys from the Local Fury level, and said he was beating that caliber of opponent back in 2016.
“It’s a little bit harder to knock out the guys that don’t want to be knocked out,” Holland said.
He gave Smith some credit for the Brown win, saying he understood the frustration of not finishing Brown, and pointed out that he had Brown in a choke for half a round himself and still couldn’t close the show. He capped it with a 50 Cent reference, essentially asking why Smith is mad at him specifically.
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Holland has a real fight this weekend. He meets No. 12-ranked welterweight Uros Medic on Saturday at UFC 334 in New York City. As for what comes after, Holland made it pretty clear Smith isn’t on the menu. He said he plans to handle Smith the way Jon Jones handled the Tom Aspinall situation.
“Donald Daffy Duck, laughing all the way to the bank and back like Mr. Scrooge,” Holland said, describing himself.
I’ll be honest, a guy openly calling himself a duck while explaining that he’s going to duck someone is the most Kevin Holland thing imaginable, and I kind of love the self-awareness. I also hate the actual plan. Smith’s case is legit: the fight was booked, Holland got hurt, and Smith kept winning. Holland’s point about ranking logic is fair too, because a ranked guy has zero incentive to hand a prospect his name. But picking the Jones-Aspinall saga as your role model is a wild choice when most fans still bring it up as a sore spot. Beat Medic on Saturday first. Then we’ll see whether the quacking holds up.
