Derek Brunson is optimistic ahead of the fight against Kevin Holland and thinks he has the better skill set.
Not long ago Derek Brunson was beginning to be seen as the stepping stone for the up and coming fighters of the Middleweight division, however, with an incredible display in the last three fights, the 36-year-old has drastically changed his fortunes.
The human blanket picked apart the young prospect Edmen Shahbazyan at UFC Vegas 5, and with it disseminated that if anybody thinks he is a journeyman, they must also come to terms that, his journey will not end before a title shot.
The No.7 ranked Middleweight is now on the cusp of further elevation but, there is a big challenge in front of him in form of the big mouth Kevin Holland.
The two Middleweights are targeted to headline a fight night event in March. The matchmakers presumably did not give much thought before booking this fight, as the two have previously engaged in arguments on social media and want to settle their dispute in the real fight setting.
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Derek Brunson on why he wants to fight Kevin Holland
In the wake of that Derek Brunson has appeared on the Mike Swick podcast and laid out his thoughts about the fight. Derek Brunson apparently wants to set an example with Kevin Holland, who in 2020 surged at a rapid pace and garnered a rare 5-0 record in a year.
“I tried a lot of options and it seems like Kevin Holland is the only guy that I’m getting traction on right now,” said Brunson. “I don’t want to fight everybody’s path or their ideal toughest fights, I want to fight people who are on winning streaks, people who have a lot of hype.” He also said, “I want somebody with some buzz who the UFC cares about.”
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Derek Brunson is confident about getting the better of Kevin Holland
In the conversation, Brunson expressed confidence and indicates that the challenge of Trailblazer does not intimidate him, especially when he is carefully examining his past fights to figure out his strengths and weaknesses.
“Right now, I feel like I’m really coming into my prime, so I’ve watched a couple of his fights and I take in the good and bad,” said Brunson. “I was like, ‘He’s really good here. He’s not so good here. He’s average here.’ I look at everything and the last fight, I had to throw that out. That’s a fight to throw out with Jacare. Nobody gets knocked out from their back. Jacare fell asleep. He took him down and relaxed, especially a guy like that. Imagine a guy with BJJ as good as his and to sag back like that instead of like BJJ is about putting pressure on guys. That was just super weird. I threw that out. That don’t even count to me.”
While with 5 victories in 7 months, Kevin Holland has a distinguished momentum with him but, Derek Brunson is of the opinion that he will be the one to culminate the run of his opponent.
“I see myself putting it on Holland. I don’t really see any one place that he is better than me. His cardio is not better than mine, his wrestling is not better than mine, his striking is not better than mine. His BJJ is not better than mine. So, he’s a guy that’s been calling me out. He’s been calling me out for the last three fights.”
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