The bout ended without Holland landing a single takedown as Chimaev shot for a takedown in the opening exchange before locking in a D’arce choke to get the submission. While he accepted the fight against Chimaev just 24 hours before tip-off due to multiple last-minute card changes, Holland still gave credit to the unbeaten Chechen for his performance, although he still had to look at how the fight done.
“Guys, I missed an amazing grappling match last night – I mean the match, my bad,” Holland said on Instagram. “Chimaev is a hell of an athlete. I’ll keep talking because you know who I am.”
The defeat halted the Dutchman’s two-fight winning streak since moving up to welterweight after looking better than ever in his performances against Alex Oliveira and Tim Means.
Originally, Holland was scheduled to face Daniel Rodriguez in a 180kg catchweight bout, which came together a few weeks before the fight was scheduled to take place. Rodriguez ended up winning a split decision over Li Jingliang in a tight fight on Saturday.
Now, as he looks to wash the bad taste of defeat from his mouth, Holland would love the chance to book at least one more fight before 2022 ends in the hope that he could have a more favorable matchup than facing a dominant grappler like Chimaev on extremely short notice.
“I hate to end the year like that, so I’d love to go there against a striker,” Holland said. “I don’t know if I deserve another ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson] fight. I would love a “Wonderboy” match and if not a “Wonderboy” match, D-Rod [Daniel Rodriguez], we were all the way to complete it. We had to change it to save the card.
“Maybe we can get something good and do it and collect another check before the end of the year.”
Holland has said many times in the past that he likes to keep a very active schedule, and it looks like his attitude isn’t changing just because he suffered a setback at UFC 279.
