MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Nick Young On Going From NBA To Boxing; Kevin Holland On Most ‘Gangster’ Thing Nate Diaz Could Do At UFC 279

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

On the latest edition of The Fighter vs. The Writer, NBA champion and former first-round pick Nick Young and Kevin Holland join the show. With his first boxing match scheduled on Saturday at the Social Gloves event in Los Angeles, Young will discuss how he got involved with the sport and his expectations after watching several other NBA players have varying levels of success when attempting this same move. Young will also address his upcoming fight against rapper Blueface and how trash talk in the fight game won’t work against him after going up against legends like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett on the court. Also on the show, Holland previews his upcoming fight against Daniel Rodriguez at UFC 279 and how the short notice matchup came together. Holland will also look ahead to the UFC 279 main event while revealing what Nate Diaz could do in his fight against Khamzat Chimaev that would be the most “gangster” move possible. All this and more on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer! Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify Read More: MMA Fighting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. You're listening to the box. media podcast network. Welcome back to the fighter versus the writer. I'm your host, as always, Damon Martin. And this week we are rolling into another pay-per-view. We are on the precipice of UFC 279 where Hamzat Chamaev will face Nate Diaz in a rather interesting main event.

Let's leave it at that because right now Chamev is about 11 to one favorite to win that fight. We also got Tony Ferguson taken on Lee Jingleang and probably the closest fight on the entire card, the one I'm honestly looking most forward to. will be one of my guests today, Kevin Holland taking on Daniel Rodriguez. We're going to talk to Kevin Holland in just a few moments about his taking this fight on relatively short notice, also doing it at a catchweight at 180 pounds. What else he's got going on in terms of the welterweight division?

Other fights he might take later this year and a whole lot more. We're also going to be speaking to former NBA player turned boxing hopeful Nick Swaggy P. Young. Those are four words I probably never imagine myself saying on a mixed martial arts podcast. But here we are. Influencer boxing, which is what is now being called, has exploded. And anyone that denies that, you can hate it. I'm not telling you like it. I'm just saying there's a lot of people who do.

A lot of people who tune in to watch. KSI fought a couple of guys who probably had no business being into boxing ring with him. And he won. And people went nuts. I mean, people were all over that story. Jake Paul, of course, massive star. He's trying to regard himself in a different light than the other influencers because he actually wants to build what he believes will be in a legitimate boxing career. And if he ends up fighting Anderson Silva, then that would go a long way to proving that.

But, you know, you got guys like Logan Paul out there. You got guys like, you know, who else is out there? Darren Williams, another NBA player who's out there doing this thing, you know, boxing. And then, you know, he seems to be taking it more seriously. he's a more lifelong martial artist, but you get my point. Influencer, boxing, you know, guys who are not necessarily professional boxers are taking a stab at the sport. And I'm never going to be opposed to anybody making money. And if there are people interested, go ahead. You know, there are huge, I mean, Twitch is a massive service for streaming video gaming. I've never been

interested because I'm not a big gamer, but I understand there's a lot of people who are. I'm not going to begrudge them the right to pay or to watch, you know, other people play video games. That's cool. League of Legends, huge, huge events. They have huge events in the Staples Center where the fight that Nick Young is going to fight on this weekend. So, again, I'm not saying you should like it. I'm just saying that it's huge and we can't deny that people are paying attention.

So with that being said, I'm going to welcome Nick Young onto the show. We're going to talk about his foray into boxing as he gets ready to take on Blueface, a rapper from L.A. who previously fought on a BKFC card in a boxing match. He's been in headlines lately for probably all the wrong reasons, but we're going to talk to Nick about his interest in doing this boxing thing, how serious he's taking it, and transitioning from boxing, or excuse me, transitioning from basketball into boxing,

and hopefully having a much better result than, say, Nate Robinson did when he tried himself against Jake Paul a couple years ago. So, yeah, so it was an interesting conversation. you know, I've learned to embrace that, you know, people are going to like what they're going to like. Whether I like it or not is irrelevant. People are going to like what they're going to like. Listen, I love college and Olympic wrestling. I love folk style wrestling.

I love freestyle wrestling. I've even started to enjoy Greco-Roman wrestling. There's a whole lot of people who could watch a wrestling match on, you know, the Big Ten network or whatever and be bored out of their minds. They're just not into it. And I'm okay with that. It's not, I'm not telling you to like what you like what you like. And there's a lot of people who like influencer boxing. I don't completely, I still don't completely get it.

I still don't completely get the attraction. You know, I like watching skilled fighters, fight other skilled fighters. I look forward to, you know, Al J. Stirling, B.J. Dillishal. I look forward to, you know, Kamar Usman versus Leon Edwards. I look forward to Israel Adasanya versus Alex Paheyah. I look forward to those fights. That's a really skill. These are best of the best facing each other.

I don't get as into the what we would have called quote unquote freak show fights. But again, you like what you like and I'm never going to begrudge somebody for liking what they like. And these guys are out there making money. They're putting on shows. And a lot of people are interested in. The one thing I will say before we get to Nick Young, when I went to Jake Paul versus Tyron Woodley just a little over a year ago here in Ohio, the crowd, the audience was skewed so much younger. I felt like the oldest guy in the room because not only had I not heard of half the influence. which people were talking about.

But I was blown away by the amount of young teenagers, you know, teenagers, college-age students. And that's not to say that group doesn't go to UFC events or big boxing events. But typically speaking with, let's say, UFC, you're typically seeing, you know, 25 to 45 to 60, you know, is kind of like the age range, which you'll typically see at a UFC event. That's not to say you won't see younger kids there or younger teenagers there, like 13, 14, 15. but by and large the audience is much more mixed between like 25 and 45. At that Jake Paul event, I mean, I think the average age had to be 19 or 20.

I mean, I'm not kidding, 21, 22 maybe. I mean, it was really young. A lot of kids, a lot of teenagers. And those are fans who we assume if they're big fans now, they will transition to become big fans later, whether they continue to follow Jake Paul or KSI or Nick Young or whoever. And then maybe they will get into watch. watching mixed martial arts or watching, you know,

you know, Alexander Ussig versus Olexander Ussig versus Anthony Joshua. I don't know. But again, you like what you like. I'm never going to fault you for liking what you like. So with that being said, I wanted to talk to at least one of the guys who was fighting on this social gloves card coming up on Saturday from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It's on pay-per-view. It's being carried by our friends over at Fight TV as well.

Make sure to check that out. So I'm interested to hear from Nick Young, talk to a best. his transition from basketball into boxing, how this whole thing came about, how serious he's taking it, and what can we expect on Saturday night when he steps in the ring against Blueface? I'm here with the first round NBA draft pick, NBA champion, but on September 10th, he's going to be putting on the gloves and throwing down at the social gloves events against Blueface. I am very excited to talk to Nick, Swaggy P. Young, Nick, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. How's everything?

I'm good, man. Thank you so much for taking the time for me. You've done a million interviews throughout your NBA career. How excited are you to do one talking about boxing? I know. It's good to talk about something different. Let me start here because, you know, this event's getting a lot of attention. I know it got rescheduled.

You were going to fight earlier this year. Now it's going to be September 10th. But let me ask you, I know this is probably a question you've answered a thousand times, but I got to ask it. How did this happen? Like, how did you get involved? with boxing and doing this because we've seen a lot of crossover recently

but it's still, I mean, you are, you know, you're gonna be a champion, you know what I mean? Like you're, you know, we know you as a basketball player. So what got you interested in doing this? Well, you know, the guy you just told it to, Demetri, he was talking trash about his gym, like he goes to his boxing gym all the time. He's like, I don't think you're ready for it.

I don't think you can handle it. And I, you know, I wanted to stay fit, staying in shape sometimes all last summer. So I end up going, and I liked it. And I like the, you know, men in the ring. I liked the, you know, how it kept me in shape. And, you know, from there, they were talking, would you fight? When you fight somebody, you see the Dave Robinson fight,

and you see Dan Williams fight, would you get in the ring? And I end up saying, yeah, you know, the rest is history. And by finding people, would you fight him? Would you fight him? Some people are like, like, nah, I'm not ready for that yet. but for the most part yeah I was ready I felt like I had a good chance

between my trainer and talking to Demetre's I think it's becoming the perfect fit for me yeah now you you've been an athlete your whole life so of course you know you can adapt to things better than the average person you know you're not coming in we know like the social influencers coming in like there's the big question

because we don't know what you know We don't know how good they are athletically. Well, you're a natural athlete. You've been an athlete your entire life. But, again, that doesn't mean you want to throw punches or get punched. So, like, did you do, like, as a kid growing up, like, did you, like, were you interested in fighting at all? Like, did you do anything like that?

Or was this literally, like, the first time you really got into it when you stepped in that gym? No, you know, my dad was a boxer, you know, and he will always tell us about it. But I had a bunch of, I'm the youngest of, you know, four brothers. so I used to get beat up a lot. Hopefully that helped out. Hopefully that helped out, but it still is nothing like managing the ring. You know, I don't think nothing to prepare you to get hit. You know, nobody want to get hit.

But the more I train, the more I got comfortable, the more I'm getting comfortable. And I feel like September 10th, I should be ready. Yeah, absolutely. Now, I saw one of your training videos you posted on Instagram, a few days ago, maybe it was last week, where you were in a sparring session, you clipped the guy right hand, he went down. Now,

boxing like all combat sports is not easy. I mean, it's not easy. Now, you have, again, you have natural gifts. You're, again, athletically talented. You're tall. You got that long reach, all those kind of things. But that doesn't mean you can throw a punch. We all know that.

I've seen enough NBA fights to know some guys can't throw a punch in the NBA. But you, I saw that one two combo that left right combo, and you landed. Like, that was good. Like, have you adapted to it pretty? have you had fun doing it? Like in terms like going out there and learning and actually becoming a boxer?

Yeah, yeah, it's been fun. You know, sometimes it's fun. Sometimes they'll be in there, far as well, you know, professional, then you realize how far you are from, you know, being a real boxer, you know. And, but, you know, for the most part, I've been having fun, you know.

It's good, you know, trying something new, learning something new. You know, playing basketball is good to find something that gives you that same kind of, you know, excitement. So it feels good. Yeah. Now, we've seen, you know, there have been like those kind of fun, like crazy, like,

quote unquote, celebrity boxing matches back in the day. But in the last couple of years, we have seen more and more guys kind of getting into this side of the sport. But you're not, you know, you're not necessarily the first guy. But again, I don't necessarily know you want to be the first guy because you just don't know what to expect. Now, Nate Robinson, things did not go well for Nate Robinson. It did not work out well for him.

But then you look at Darren Williams. Darren Williams came and had a great performance against Frank Gore. I watched that fight, and he looked fantastic. Now, I know he's a bit of a lifelong martial artist and then you really had fun doing it. But did you, like, when you watched those kind of fights, like, did it, I don't know, did it give you two sides of your same brain? Like, man, like, I want to do this, but, like, there is a cautionary tale to it, too. Like, it ain't easy. It ain't easy for sure.

You know, I give Nate his credit for just getting it to me, but I know. it's tough. It's tough losing like that because that's all you get known for. You know, I have made a slam dunk champion, you know, played in the NBA for so long. And now all people know is for the guy that got knocked out by Jake, you know. So that's always going to be in the back of somebody's head. That's in the back of my head. But at the same time, you know, if, you know, you come out victorious, you know,

things change for you. So it's, you know, it's ups and downs, you know, it's up and downs, you can become a meme in a bad way or a beam in a good way. Yeah. Now, you, you know, when you're in training, you're in sparring, you know, you're out there to work with your teammates, your training partners. You're not, obviously not trying to hurt each other. So I understand that. But, like, when I saw that knockdown, I'm sure that wasn't your first knockdown.

But when you landed, like, when you landed really hard for the first time and you knocked a guy down or you caught him with a good punch, like, how good did that feel? because there is that learning curve, right? Like, you can throw punches. Doesn't mean you're going to land. When you landed that first car, or even that video you posted, you land that one, too, and that guy went down. Like, how good did that feel just seeing the fruits of your labor paying off? Oh, yeah, that felt good.

You know, that gave you the most confidence, you know. But my chair is like, don't get too high. I don't need a most pain. I got this now. But, you know, just to see, like, you always want to see something like that, you know, because I watch it out. I've been a fan of both sports. UFC, boxing.

I watch everything. And, you know, you see that all the time. And for you to be that guy on the other end, knocking somebody down, it's a great feeling, you know. I went home, I showed with everybody. Yeah, absolutely. Now, coming out, you know, doing your first fight,

of course, you're a big name, Nick. I mean, you've been around, you're, as I said, NBA champion, first round draft pick, all these things. So you are a big name. So you could have had a lot of different opponents. and you know and you would be you know they'd talk about the A side B side

you'd be the A side in most fights did you know Blueface like were you aware of who he was because he obviously had that one fight you know the one boxing match over at BKFC when he did the boxing match looked good that night I covered that event were you aware of him

did you know his name were you aware of him when you got that name yeah yeah for sure LA guy you know I do that you know from passes you know some of the same people But I didn't think he was going to accept the fight just because the weight difference, you know.

He's a lighter guy, like 170, 175, from 210 to 215. So I didn't think the fight was going to be, or they didn't happen. But to his credit, you know, he accepted a fight, you know. And for some reason, he thinks he's, you know, stronger and better than me. So we'll see. Yeah.

Did you see his, I assume at some point, seen his boxing match you had over there in BKFC? For sure, for sure. You know, I'm nothing like that guy. A guy was a five, nine, you know, couldn't throw a punch, but he's probably somebody taller, longer arms, you know,

and let me see what happened. Yeah, now he's, I'll be honest, like from everything I've seen, he's kind of a rowdy guy. Like, I'm not saying this in a bad way, but he can be a bit of a troublemaker, you know, He does talk trash and he gets in a lot of headlines, maybe not for the best of reasons, things like that. Like, how do you shut all that out going into Fight Week? Like, you know, listen, I know how I'm, I am the furthest thing from ever being, I played high school sports.

So I know I'm the furthest thing for professional athlete. But even in high school, I remember how much we trash talked each other. Like, it was bad then. So you know what it's like to be trash talk on the court. I know it. I've seen those inside the NBA videos where they show the trash talk going on in the NBA. But like, how do you shut? that out into fight week, no, and he's, you know, he might try to get in your head.

Because that's, mental warfare is a real thing. He actually, he has it. He has one match, so he does have that over you, that kind of thing. Like, how do you prepare for that? No, and he's going to probably try to play that game going into Fight Week. You know, just, well, I don't see the best of trash talk either. I've been on court with Kobe Bryant, and, you know, he's one of the best trash talkers ever, Cavalcarnett, you know.

I've been around these guys and I came in a game and KG was like, who's this guy? What's his name? And looked at him in the back of my jersey and stuff when I was a rookie. So, you know, I've been in the game with Kobe where they tell my coach, who's this guy guarded me? Why all got him guarded me? And he scored points. So I haven't seen it all.

So come this September 10th, you know, it's. It's nothing he can really tell me that could give me, trick me out of my game, really. So I see him, you know, hopefully he'd make it, you know, and don't get beat up by his girlfriend just, you know, beforehand. I was going to ask you about that because, you know, like I said, he's kind of been in the headlines for the wrong reasons recently. And, like, I got to be honest, like, I saw a TMZ headline like yesterday or two days ago. Like, was there any concern?

Like, is he going to make it to the fight? Yeah, yeah, a lot of concern, you know. because, you know, they don't like, you can't fight with scars and stuff, you know, and she was hitting them with two pieces, you know. He was giving me motivation. I thought I might have to fight her, so. But they're they're saying they're not fighting more, so hopefully we just, everything is good and you just make it to this fight.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you say trash talk, you know, of course, you know, the late great Kobe Bryant, you talk about like all-time great. I've heard stories. We've all heard stories. Like, that's like setting the bar really high. Like, Blueface can't get to that level, right? Like, there's no way he can get to that level.

For sure, for sure. So, yeah, I don't hurt at all. Yeah. Now. That's a four year, so. So now, you go in here, the goal is to win, right? Like, it doesn't matter how you win. You want to win.

But, you know, again, we've seen you have power. You want to go in there. I mean, listen, it's boxing. You don't want to go in there just to eke out of decision. You want to go in there and knock this guy out. Like, but you can't think about the knockout. But when you look at this fight, do you think yourself like, that would be the perfect ending to knock this guy out?

For sure, for sure. And that's the goal, you know. But if it goes to distance, I don't want it to go to a distance. I want to have a great show to the point where, you know, I look good and, you know, everything I worked hard for, you know, comes to light that night, you know. But if it goes to different, and it goes the distance.

Yeah. Now, I'm not in any way, shape, or form looking past September 10th, because that's the goal. You got to get to September 10th. You got to knock out blue face. You got to get your first win. But, you know, everything goes well. Like, have you enjoyed boxing enough and the training and the preparation for this,

like to where you think this is going to be a longer term thing? Like, this isn't one and done. No, no, definitely not one of done. I want to see how far I could go with it. You know, and it's fun. You know, it's fun. You know, once I get past, I pop my chair and get past my first one, I want to, you know, caught out some more people and have fun with it

and, you know, become an undisputed basketball chip, you know, boxing basketball chip. I like it. I like it. Now, I did see, though, away from basketball, I did see your comment on Twitter. You did not seem too impressed with KSI's performance last weekend. He was fighting anybody. I felt like he finds people. people on the street.

They have two fights in one night. That shows you he wasn't really fighting by that. But it was some good fights on the undercar, like the famous tipper fight when he fought slim was good. His brother Digi versus Fuji

was a great fight. Dan the Great Dean the Great. It was some good fights on his undercar. But KSI, I felt like he didn't really fight nobody. I feel like if he, it'd be a good fight to see him fight

like Austin, or, you know, Jake or somebody that he's won a fight because that wasn't nothing. Yeah. Now, I know you said, like, you know, Austin's, of course, in the main event right alongside you, he looked great in his first fight. I watched that fight as well when he fought Bryce Hall.

I know you said, like, that would be a fight, but like, for you, like, again, not to put Austin aside or anything, but like, is that something like down the road, maybe you get KSI, or maybe Desi, maybe you get Desi first, you get KSI.

Like, would you entertain that kind of idea? Sure, for sure. That'll be a great fight, you know. And I'm all for, you know. The better I lose, the more money I make for this. Now, I got to ask you, Nick, did you see on your inside,

I'm sure you did. On your Instagram, you posted one of the videos, I think it was when you, or you posted the poster for the event, Darren Williams was on there, and he said, let me get the winner. What do you think about that? He said, let me get the winner.

And I was like, it was, it was Darren Williams. I looked up, make sure it wasn't like, you know, some fake account as Darren Williams. He said, let me get the winner. What do you think? With that, for sure. And both he won it on and do it. Yeah, I like it.

You know, it's fun. These events have been a lot of fun. Like, listen, I like boxing, and I love watching Canello. I love watching Tyson Fury. I love, but what I like about these events is they've been fun. Like, there have been an injection of like, just an enjoyable event to have fun watching these events.

Like, I don't know how much you've watched them, but it just seems like these are fun events. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I think that's what the goal is forward. You know, I don't think you can look at us like a Conello or, because none of us been boxing that long, you know. But hopefully we got a good enough showing that, you know, you have. fun being there watching it, you know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And you're going to be in your, you're going to be in your stopping grounds, right? You're going to be in L.A. They say it's the Battle of L.A. I'm sure a little pride online there too, right? For sure, for sure. You know, it's not the street from my, you know, from USC where I went. So, yeah, I'm going to be all right. Now you were USC, that was your college, and you played for the Lakers, obviously,

for several years. What colors are you rocking this weekend? I got her next weekend. I got to ask. Can you tell me? Can you hit, like, what colors are you rocking? Um, I don't know. I've been watching a lot of my husband at least.

I might go white. Okay. Okay. I like it. I like it. Well, Nick, this is a really fun fight. And I'm sure you've seen it. I mean, listen, you've seen the attention that's getting online and on Instagram and all the different things going on.

Like, have you felt it? Have you felt the attention? Like, this event's getting a lot of buzz already. It's a week away. It's a week away. And people are talking. Sure, for sure. It's like, everywhere I go, it's just, are your hands ready?

Are you? You ready? I'm going to be at the fight. You ready? You can't move. You know, everywhere I go, I hear that. So, you know, I'm ready.

I'm glad there's going to be a lot of people there and people watching. Absolutely. Well, Nick, thank you so much for taking the time. I really do appreciate it. I'm super excited to see you go out there and do your thing. See you go out there and throw some punches with Blueface. And, man, we got to do this again. Everything goes well.

You get the win. You got to come back. We do this again. We'll talk about the next one, all right? For sure, for sure. Well, definitely. Absolutely. We'll talk again, okay?

All right. Well, man. All right. Thank you. Bye-bye. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrantz sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point.

Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. A big thank you to Nick Young for coming on the show. Really appreciate him taking the time.

Really looking forward to him stepping in there. I've also realized that in this podcast alone, probably said the word blueface more than I ever imagined I would say the word blue face in my entire career. He is the guy facing Nick Young. Austin McBroom is the main event. He's another social influencer and there's some other fights on this car. Check it out over on Fight TV this weekend. Of course, the biggest event of the weekend, at least where my coverage is concerned, is UFC 279, where Nate Diaz will have the final fight on his current UFC contract as he takes on Hamzaa Chamaev in a fight where he is a massive, massive underdog.

Also, in the co-main event, Tony Ferguson returns to his old stomping grounds at Walter Wade as he takes on Li Jing Liang. A bit of a head scratcher doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, especially with Tony coming off that big knockout loss to Michael Chandler, but it is what it is. I know Tony has said numerous times he wants to fight at 170. Tony had texted me photos of his training when he was down at Jackson's a few weeks ago, and he looked good. You know, he looked good. He looked, you know, in shape. He looked like he was, you know, having a good time. He looked, you know, ready to go. And got to be honest, he looked good in that early going to the Michael Chandler fight. I mean, before he got caught and then, you know, credit to Michael Chandler for landing that incredible knockout. But Tony looked good up to that point. He did not look bad. So, you know, we'll see. I know Tony has said for a long time he wanted to test himself at WellTo Wait again. This is his chance to do that. So I'm actually kind of excited to see how he does. Although, again, I'm not really sure how much. much Lee Jing Liang is the fight that's going to make a whole lot of sense for Tony Ferguson

at this stage in his career. I think, you know, maybe a matchup against, you know, guy like Matt Brown or, you know, whether it's kind of like, you know, the legends of the division of Robbie Lawler, you know, that kind of fight would be a lot of fun to watch. Like, Robbie Lawler, Tony Ferguson, who would watch that? Or even Brian Barbarina. I know Brian's on a bit of a streak now and, you know, trying to work towards top 15 competition, but that would be a fun fight, you know, that kind of fight.

So it doesn't make a lot of sense, but, you know, it is what it is. But our next guest is the man who will fight in probably the most competitive fight on the main card with the most on the line in terms of where they go in the future of the division, even though technically this fight is taking place at 180 pounds. That is Kevin Holland taken on Daniel Rodriguez. Now, this fight came together on fairly short notice, so that's the reason for the catchway. We'll talk to Kevin about that. I'll also talk to him about Nate Diaz making his final appearance in the UFC this weekend. Tony Ferguson will talk about his future in terms of what he's going to do for the rest of this year because there were rumors that perhaps Kevin was going to be looking at a fight with Wonderboy.

I know Wonderboy was looking at November for the Madison Square Garden card, UFC 281, which is the Adasanya versus Pahia card. So we're going to talk to Kevin about all that as well as his heroics and other things he's got going on just days away from his fight against Daniel Rodriguez at UFC 279. he makes his return at UFC 279 actually kind of a short-notice fight so it's going to be at a catchweight but he's still going to be one of the best welter weights of the world i am always happy to speak with kevin holland kevin how are you doing doing pretty good brother doing pretty good ripping and running running and ripping you know i mean yeah how about you i am fantastic man it's always a good day when i get to speak to you and uh obviously you are just about a week away from your fight this all i didn't really you know it's funny the fight got announced and i didn't realize they

how actually short notice this was. Like the fights next week, it just got to announce last week. So this was pretty short notice. Yeah, it was just, I mean, we call it short notice, but I call it, you know, another day in the office for me, you know, stay ready, you don't have to get ready. And, you know, that's what we do. Now, I had heard, you know, I heard rumors there were a couple different potential

fights I was there for you. I heard maybe Wonderboy in November. Then this Daniel Rodriguez fight came up, and I guess what I heard was is you didn't want to wait. You're not saying you wouldn't fight November 2, but you didn't want to wait all the way to November to fight again. Is that accurate? No, I want to fight Wonderboy for sure, for sure,

but not wanting to wait is kind of accurate as well. You know, I did that in the Brunson fight. You know, they had me wait so long before I fought again, and I let a lot of things in life take over instead of just worrying about the fight. So this time around, you know, instead of making excuses, which I don't do, I just become a smarter athlete. I say, hey, I like to stay active.

It's a big fight. I love that fight. You think I can get something in before then, so that way I know that my feet are wet. I'm ready to rock and roll. And, you know, UFC being who they are, such great people. You know, Dana's the man, Shelby, McManner. You know, they all got everything under lock.

So they blessed me with that. And they gave me a list of names. I gave them a list of names. And out of nowhere D-Rod came popped along. And when I got, I said I got a hard on, man. I got a hard on. I got super happy to be able to fight D-Rod just because I was supposed to be my first

World Tway fight to begin with. So why not lock them up and knock them down? You know what I mean? Yeah, I love it. Now, the fights of the catch-wit is 180, right? Is that right, 180? Yeah. Okay, so now was that you or him,

or was that just because it was short-noticed for both of you? Because I know you're not done a middle-way. You told me many times you'll fight a middle-weight again. Was it just because how short-noticed this was? It would just be harder to get to Walterway. It was harder for him. how did that come about that it was a catch weight? I mean, I mean, who do you think it was harder on?

You know what I'm saying? I'm ready to go, bro. If it had been 170 pounds, I would have made it. 185 pounds is what I asked for after they said no to 170. They told me no to 185. So they give me 180. I asked for 175 because that should really be a weight class. They gave me 180.

I'm cool with 180 because it's right in between both. so maybe they'll rank me at both. Like I did that. I like how that works, right? Get two for one. Yeah. So now, D-Rod, we know what he's about. He's a super tough guy.

You know, he's a fun guy to watch. Only one loss of the UFC on a three-fight win streak. I know this isn't necessarily a ranked guy. And we had talked, you know, we talked after the last win. We talked about potential mathups. You know, Wonderboy was one. I mentioned a couple other guys out there. Were you okay?

I mean, at the end of the day, D-Rod's a tough guy, but not a top 50. guy. Did that matter? No, fight to fight. He used to be top 15. He only got removed from top 15 because of he got injured and he wasn't able to stay active. You know, the dude beat Kevin Lee. You know, if that doesn't rank your top 15, you know. Like they always say, where does Kevin Lee stand in all this?

Kevin Lee always stands top 15 where a weight class he's in. So, yeah, DRODs the truth, man. To say anything other than that, we'd be lying. You know, DROD is a fun fight. is, you know, it's going to be good. It's going to be good. I don't want to say anything bad about the dude. I like the dude.

He's from California. You know, he tries to play the tough role. Fuck you. Fuck that, all that type of stuff. But I don't know. I don't buy it, you know. Trying to sell a fight. He and Diaz.

He's D-Rodd. Stick to be a D-Rod, buddy. Yeah. Do you like, you, because it seems like a couple of your fights that well to it, especially with the fight what Tim Means last time out. Like the UFC likes giving you these guys to have this notorious reputation for being super tough. And then you go out there and beat him.

To me, that makes you look even better. And D-Rod's kind of that guy. It's never, you know, never been finished in the UFC. Only has one loss. It was a decision. You know, you go out there and beat this guy. You beat him decisively. You finish him like we know you know how to do.

You know, that's an even bigger statement, right? Like, I know you like making statements in your fights. And this seems like another golden opportunity to do that. Yeah. I mean, you know, we definitely love making statements and stuff like that. But, I mean, I don't know. I mean, statements always going to be made no matter what. D-Rod being tough.

I mean, everybody's tough until they're not tough anymore, right? Everybody has a granted chance so the chin's not granted no more, unless you're Luke Rockhole, then it was always weak. So, you know, everybody's that guy until they're not that guy anymore. You know, something happens when they fight me somewhere down the line, they become not that guy. So I look forward to making sure that he's not that guy come that night, you know? And then every night after that, if he wants to be that guy, he can be.

But come September 10th, you know, he won't be as tough as he normally is. he won't be this, he won't be that. And I don't care what the excuses. That's perfectly fine by me. It's just my time the night's over with, I'm going to be the man. I'm either going to be on top or I'm going to have my hands raised one way or another. I'm coming out, feeling good, looking good, ready to go again, you know? I love, yeah, absolutely.

Would that being said, Kevin, you know, in a way you said, you know, the UFC kind of blessed you putting you on this car getting you out there earlier because you didn't want to wait until November. But a lot of ways you stepped in and kind of helped them out, right? Because this card needed some star power, you know what I mean? They got you and they got Tony Ferguson kind of last minutes to come in here, help boosts this card. In a way, like, you are the guy. You always say, call, call me, call Big Mouth.

They need somebody call Big Mouth. Once again, you're stepping up when needed. Oh, yeah. I mean, always, you know, whenever you need me, I'm going to be there. Look, it's a job. At the end of the day, you know, I know a lot of people try and act like it's not a job, but, you know, it's a job. And we get paid to go to work.

The only time you get paid is when you go to work. So I like getting paid. You got to continue to clock in. So I can even make bread. I continue to clock in. So anytime they call me, I like to be ready. If I had a truck driving business, I'd always have to be ready for the calls, right? If I had a towing business, I'd always have to be ready for the calls.

I am the towing company. I am the truck driving business. I'm the one that's going to haul this shit wherever it got to go, no matter what it is. So you call me whenever you need me, and I'm there. We can figure out the weight class later. Yeah. Now, when we spoke after your win against Tim Means, you know, we were talking about potential opponents. The one guy you mentioned that I thought actually had a real good chance to get made was the Nate Diaz fight.

You know, he was trying to get out of the UFC, trying to get that last fight. Seemed like a fun fight. You know, I know you said you would love to face him. It ends up, you end up being on the same card as him, funny enough, with you and D.Rod. He's fighting Hamzaa Chama. Now, there's been a lot of opinions on Nate Diaz and Hamzot Chimay. As a guy who was, you know, legitimately going out there saying, hey, I'll fight Nate. That's a fight I would absolutely take, and I would love to take it.

Can I get your opinion on that matchup? Because a lot of people are like, I don't know, it seems like a lot of people are just kind of looking past Diaz. Listen, I get it. Chimaya's a monster. And I don't, you know, I feel like I know what the UFC's doing here a little bit, maybe sending Diaz out on a loss versus a win, you know, an automatic win, that kind of thing.

I don't know. But I don't know. How do you feel about that? Because I've heard a lot of mixed opinions about that matchup. It's mixed martial arts. It's a fight. Nothing's ever locked in 100%. If somebody shows up to fight and the other guy shows up thinking that he already has a

fighting a bag. It could easily go the other way. That's just, that's part of the fight game. Diaz, people were writing them off, you know, but he rocked the champ right now. You know, the champ right now, he had the champ on wobble legs. He was on Corner Street in the fifth round, final round, in a very tough fight. And that guy is one hell of a striker. Chamev is a very, very dominant wrestler.

Diaz is a very great grappler. You know, he has very good grappling off of his back. back, and I'm pretty sure he can do damage on top. So, I mean, I would never completely write off Diaz. Pretty sure Chameh has a very smart camp. I think I met his head coach and stuff like that. They don't seem like the type of people who write anybody off. They sound like the type of people who take everything very serious.

So on paper, 100%, Chameh should win this fight. But us is fine. We do have a tendency to sometimes get a little big-headed to think that we got everything in the bag. And that could be the one problem. He's up in that. The kid's fun. I didn't be able to go out there and do it as he pleases the kids. I know a lot of people don't like to hear that, but he should be pleased to get.

Hopefully he makes it fun for the fans. But if I was his coach and if I was Dana, I'd want the kid to go out there, get the job done, and go home. But that being said, the guys ain't an easy guy home. I mean, to go in there and get the job done and go home. You know what I mean? He makes it a fight. So, yeah, I know it's probably not what everybody wants to hear, but yeah, it's a fight. I can't tell you exactly how it's going to go because it's all about it's all about how the young lion shows up and it's all about how the old dog wants to fight.

So, you know, Diaz might go out there and tap out without them even throwing any strikes. He might just say, ha, last fight's done on the contract. See you guys later. You read my mind. I joked for a long time. I said, we know how bad Diaz once out of that contract. I was like, what if he just walked in the cage, Bruce Buffard? Bruce Buffer announces him and he just taps the cage and walks out again.

Oh, gee, right? I mean, me personally, I mean, I'm not ever going to tell anybody to do that because I'm a company guy. I like the company I fight for. I like getting paid. But, I mean, fuck, that'd be some gangster-ass shit, wouldn't it? I mean, only did is would do something like that, you know, walk in there, get his name announce, throw his hands up.

Tap page and be like, steal a guy. If anyone is going to do it, it's going to be Nate Diaz. Maybe whatever to do that it would be smart and talbotts are to go out there and not care about nothing. To the next lot of the word, but why is that a mindset to do shit like that? But Diaz, when a moment's hot. So, yeah, Diaz.

Yeah, brother. Now, the other guy I wanted to ask you about in this car, because this is your division now, the Welterweight Division. A lot of people have been talking about the other fight right ahead of yours is the Tony Ferguson Lee Jinglingling fight. Now, what I ask you. This is my, this is my car. D-Rod hit around the money.

We are the main event. Like, people can say a lot of different things. Sounds good, but, man, that's what everybody want to see. Just like when they was in Austin, Texas. I was main event, and my boy, Adrian Yanez was co-main event. Like that's what it is. They're about to crash. I'm not helping them.

But that's what it is. Yeah. Like, they didn't crash. This is the real main event is what we're saying. This is the real main event, bro. Like all that other stuff sounds good. I mean, I love Tony.

I think Tony the man. I hear what you're saying about Tony and Jingle-Lang, but Tony's just getting last fights out the way before he's done. You know what I mean? He's just having fun before he's done. You know, he's enjoying a career before the career is over. Jingelang, if he wanted to do it, to get challenged or something, he should have been fighting me.

I would have knocked his block off. But it is what it is. I hope everybody on the card has a good time. I think they're all good fights. But me and D-Rod, that's what matters, baby. That's where it's at. That's going to be the fun-in-law right there. Well, it's funny you say that because I think a lot of people like this is the fight

that actually has like people, listen, you know, I think a lot of people are going to be picking you to win, Kevin. But, you know, we can't discount D-Rod. He's a tough dude. I mean, he didn't get here by accident. He's not like he's coming in here off three losses in a row or something crazy. a good fighter. You know, the Chimae of odds are insane.

You know, like, Chimaya's like an 11 to one favorite. You know, everyone's wondering, like, it's Tony Ferguson done. This is the most competitive fight. Like, being honest, like, this is the most competitive fight. Like, that's what you want in a main event. That's what you want on a card like this, right? Yeah, on paper. On paper, this is the most competitive fight for show.

On paper, you know, on paper, for sure, for sure, for sure. No, I keep saying on paper, though. On paper. Yeah, on paper. On paper, not reality, but on paper. Yeah, on paper, and that's all that matters. On paper is how you make the paper. So on paper, that is the fight.

And you guys know me, man. I like to have a real fight. I don't like going out there and just doing my thing. I like to have a fight. I like to go in there and see what the other guy has and all that stuff. So I plan on having a good time against D-Rod. I mean, shit, I like getting hit. I want to see what that left hand all about.

You know what I'm saying? I want to see if it's fully healed up or not. You know what I mean? I want to punch his left hand. I want to see if it's fully healed up or not. I want to see what doctors he using. I might want to use them doctors one day too. let's have a good time.

You know, like, everybody knows that about me. I love having a good time. Ain't nothing better than a fist fight. You know what I mean? Ain't nothing better than going out there, too, man, locking it in and getting after it. So we're going to have a good time. Yeah, absolutely.

Now, I already know the answer to this question before I ask it, Kevin, but I'm going to ask it anyways, only because, again, you were talking about potential matchups. I said the Wonderboy fight in November. There's a couple other things. Can I assume everything goes well on September 10th? You want to get one more in this year, like whether it's November, December,

you'd like to get one more in? 100%. Because this one right here will only be the third fight. I have to fight at least four to five times a year. See, people, they think that that five times a year was crazy because it happened on the UFC scale.

But I was doing that way before I ever got to the UFC. Like, I'll always fight as many times as I can in the year. And whether it's jit-suit matches, super matches, MMA fights, Moitai fights, whatever the case may be, I do it all because, like, it's not about clout. it's not about a check. I do love the check. It's not about none of that.

It's about my mental and my spiritual well-being. Like, I feel better as a human being. I feel better as a parent. I feel better as just the person that I need to be. I feel like a better Kevin when I fight four to five times a year, possibly seven. You know, and it's like that's just seven makes me a little tired, but four to five makes me feel really good.

So I have to fight four to five times a year for my own mental capability to be able to be who I need to be. If I can't fight four to five times a year, just retire me, and I'm just being 100% honest. If I can't fight four, fight four to five times a year, retire me, I don't need to fight anymore. If I can fight four to five times a year,

you know, on the minimum scale, then I like to stay active until I'm 36 years old. But if I can't do it, you know, physically or the job doesn't want to allow me to do it, you might as well give me my retirement papers and tell me to hang it up. Because mentally, if I'm a warrior, I'm a warrior, and I need those battles.

simple as that. Yeah, I love that attitude, absolutely. And to that point, you know, you were, when you were making your way up to the ranks of middleweight, you know, you were fighting constantly. And then, you know, you got into us, you know, you got in some great fights there in that top 10. What did you, like, can I ask, like,

what you learn from that experience is you now do it at Welchway. You're fighting D-Rodd, a guy, as we said, legitimately, you should be a top 15 guy right around that top 15 guy. We talked about the Wonderboy fight. We know he's the top 15 guy. Like, does your mentality change as you start getting up the rankings? Like, because I know you're not a guy who's picky and, choosy, you're not a guy who's going to turn down opportunities.

You're going to take the fights that are presented to you. My mind hasn't changed thinking about going up the rankings. My mind has changed thinking about going up in age, if that makes sense. I'm getting older. It's like if there are some things that I want to accomplish, the window's starting to get a little bit smaller, so I need to accomplish those things. Other than that, nah, no worries at all. I don't care who I fight.

I don't care about none of that. You know, it's like you continue to win. You're going to continue to move up. You lose, you're going to continue to go down. So it's what matters. What matters is going in there, getting your hand raised, you know. I might take a little less last second fights, you know, because it's not as smart. But like I said, I never said I was smart.

I always said I was a fighter. Now, Kevin, before I get you out of here, you know, we talked the last time we did an interview and we talked about, you know, I kind of joke with you about your heroics. You know, you're a guy who always ends up being kind of like the right guy in the wrong place and you save the day. But after we spoke, you actually talked. I think it was during the pre-fight media before your last fight. It was after our interview. And you had said that you don't really like the superhero label because, you know, you think about like the trauma that the people went through that you helped and you kind of wish people would just help other people.

Now, I fully embraced calling you a superhero. But I love that mentality. And I just want to say that to you because it is true. Like, you know, when you see somebody on the side of the road that needs help, like the mentality for most of us is we don't stop. We don't stop. We don't help people. And we saw a jackknife tractor trailer overturned. 99% of people wouldn't stop.

You know what I mean? Like, that's a different mentality. So when I say superhero, that's why I say because you are the guy who will stop. You are the guy who will step up. Yeah, I mean, that's just how I was raised. I was raised to do the right thing, you know. It's like, I had a lot of crazy stuff going on to my family forever, you know. And it's like a lot of people could have did the wrong thing.

You know, one specific person, she always did the right thing. That's who raised me. So, you know, it's like, I don't want to let her down. So, you know, we always do the right thing. We get in a situation to do the right or the wrong thing. We try and do the right thing. You know, it's just the human being that we are, you know? Yeah.

Well, I admired that. I really do it. And like I said, I continue to use that superhero label only because, again, you are the guy who will do the right thing. And we got to be honest, Kevin. A lot of people in this world will not. Yeah. Yeah, you are being 100% honest there.

a lot of people in this world will not do the right thing. They won't attempt to do the right thing. They won't think about doing the right thing. It's not what they want to do. You know, they want to do the easy thing. And, you know, my hat's off to those people too. Because, you know, it takes a lot to be able to turn your head and say, I'm not going to help somebody. So it's not easy being a shitty person.

So my hat's off to all the shitty people in the real, you know. I'm just glad guys like you exist, Kevin, because in all honestly, like, you know, you see those kind of things and most people just ignore them. Most people would just drive by. Most people would just like, well, you know, let it happen for, or they video,

we're in a world now when people pull out their phone and they record it happening, but they wouldn't actually do anything about it. Yeah, I mean, I could never be that person because my phone's usually pretty much always dead anyway.

So, trying to record something might take more life out of me than out of them. So I usually put my phone on the charger and then go help. They usually gives me a good five or ten minutes to get some juice on my phone.

There you go. There you go. Last thing. for you, Kevin. You know, you're always such a busy guy with training and being a dad and all the other things you got going on. But you're also a musician now, I see. You got a music career starting. Yeah, no, I don't know. It's, it's, it's, it ain't like that, guys. So first and foremost, I always joke about it, but make no mistake, I'm pretty, I'm pretty serious about it, too. I always want to be better than Tyrone Woodley at everything. You know what I mean? Just because, uh, I don't know,

I don't know what it is about Tyrone Willie. Maybe it's because my ex-wife used to like them, you know? that just to bug me. And then we seen him on an elevator one day and I was like, see, told you we would see him one day. So, yeah, I always want to be better than Tyrone Willie at everything. And I mean everything. You can check his only fan and check my only fans.

I'm pretty sure I'm better than them at everything. And then you got the music thing. So, yeah, so far I'm getting good reviews. I think I'm better than him of that. But I have a little cousin. My whole family, my whole life, they've always done music. My grandfather certified bass player.

He plays the bass guitar really well. He's been on tours with a lot of freaking gospel singers and stuff like that. The guy's a badass. You know, he's done a lot in his lifetime. You know, he's probably 60 years old, close to 70 these days. But he's lived about 140 years worth of life. So my grandpa's a badass, you know, and it's like, that's just how it is in my family. Everybody does a lot.

My little cousin, he's a really good rapper, I think. I like his music. And I can freestyle a little bit. So I figured I'd try and get all the fans that like rapping in the UFC that follow me. follow him, show him some love as well. Because who doesn't want another successful person in the family and who also doesn't want to help their boys out? So, yeah, I just figured I'd do what I could

to help him get a little extra exposure. So, you know, yeah. But does that mean now, if you want to beat Tyron Woodley and everything, does that mean you're going to go into acting too? Are you going to like, he's in the new season of Cobra Cire? Are you going to be like in the next season of Cobra Cye or try to do it even bigger show than Tyrone Woodley? Is that the next step?

Yeah, I mean, hey, you know, Cobur Kai is pretty cool, but that comes from Karate Kid, right? So if you guys want to make a new Karate Kid actual movie, you know, you need a new Kung Fu coach. You know, I can be that cool as Kung Fu coach that was like, what's that? Who's Bruce Leroy?

Who played that Bruce Leroy? I could be the Bruce Leroy, who now is officially a coach. I can be that guy. I got the fro. I got everything you need. But yeah, whatever Tyrone Woodley does, I can do it better.

So if he's acting, I can do better than him on that, too. I'm 100% positive on that. Nothing against Tyrone Woodley. The only thing that he can do better than me is be a mama's boy. And ain't nothing wrong with that. Just I'm a man's man, so I can't be that anymore. But I am a grandma's boy. Hope you guys seen that one we before.

Absolutely. Well, Kevin, I appreciate you doing this. You're literally on the road right now, so I appreciate you doing this with me. Safe travels out to the fight. Best luck in the fight. And I'm sure we will catch up afterwards. And thank you, as always, for doing this. I appreciate it.

Oh, man, no problem. Hey, and make sure you guys be on the lookout for those new shoes that Dana's going to get. Halloween shoes, baby. Let's go. I love it. Kevin, talk soon, okay? All right, brother. You have a good.

You too. Bye-bye. It is always great to catch up with Kevin Holland. Always one of my favorite interviews in the sport. He's such an honest and fun guy to talk to. Always look forward to his fights. And I really do legitimately believe this is a guy who could be knocking on the door of that top five at Welterweight sooner rather than late. Now, of course, we've got to answer the question.

How is he going to do against the wrestlers? Because eventually he's going to run in to, you know, the top guys, the top grapplers, the Gilbert Burns of the world, the Colby Covington's of the world. How is he going to adjust to that at this weight class where it didn't seem to go too well for him in middleweight? But for now, there's still a lot of fun fights out there for him at that top 15 level before he gets to a Colby Covington, before he gets to a Gilbert Burns. And this is a great test because Daniel Rodriguez, is as tough as they come, and he's never been finished in the UFC.

He has one loss on his record in the UFC. Very, very good fighter. This would be a really, really fun fight. As Kevin said, you know, this is probably the main event because it's the most, you know, on paper, it's the most even fight on the main card. You know, of course, there's going to be a lot of eyeballs on the main event, of course, also on Tony Ferguson versus Lee Jing Liang. But there are far more questions than answers about those fights,

which I think takes away some of the intrigue. And what I mean by that is, you know, with Tony Ferguson, it's not that we're looking forward to a great fight. We're wondering, like, what does Tony have left? You know, what, what does, where does Tony go from here after several losses in a row? I refuse to write that guy off because Tony is too good. But age and damage catches up to everybody. It is undefeated.

Father time is undefeated. We all know that. And Li Jing Liang hits freaking hard. Like, that is real welterweight power. He may not be the best welterweight in the world. He may not even be top 10 welterweight in the world. But he is a legitimately tough dude with real knockout power. So it's going to be interesting to see how Tony adjusts to that at this new division.

Also, in the main event, listen, you know, Hamza Tchamayev is an 11-to-one favorite for a reason. He is that good. He proved it in the Gilbert Burns fight. Very close fight, but you go out there and do that with Gilbert Burns. You're legit. Will he become champion? I think there's a good chance of it. But, you know, I think the Gilbert Burns fight showed that he's not invincible.

He's not this unstoppable wrecking machine that could just walk through everybody on his way to becoming champion. That's not going to happen. you know, Gilbert Burns tested him, and, you know, Gilbert Burns pushed him to the limit. Gilbert Burns was maybe a couple exchanges away from winning that fight. You know, so, you know, nobody can write off, you know, just these top-rank welter weights going out there, beating Hamza-Chamaya. You know, I think, you know, Colby Covington is always going to be a tough match-off for everybody in the division. You know, Kamar Usman, of course, former champion, still one of the best welter weights in the world.

Leon Edwards proved against Kamar Usman. He's the best welterweight in the world. There are a lot of guys in that division that are going to be tough. tough for Hamza. But I don't know that Nate Diaz is that guy. I like Nate very much. I think Nate is a great fighter, and I think the UFC did him dirty by not allowing him to fight out his contract sooner than this, by kind of dragging things out and not giving him fights. Everyone was interested in a dust of Porre fight, and somehow that didn't come together. We ended up with Hamzaa Chamaev. It is what it is. I don't give Nate a great chance to win this fight,

if I'm being honest. I don't really think Nate is a true welterweight. I just don't. I mean, I think he is a great lightweight. I think he's a very serviceable guy. I think he can go out there and win a lot of big fights still, but I don't know that Chamev is the guy he'll get over on. But that being said, Diaz is definitely motivated. You know, this is the last fight on his deal. He wants out of the UFC.

He wants to test free agency. I understand all that. I sympathize with all that. So we'll see how it goes. You know, like I said, this is a fight game. You can never predict what happens. If you would have told me, you know, Kamar Usman's up three rounds to one, heading into the fifth round of a title fight that it looked like Leon Edwards was breaking and

maybe not just mentally there anymore, I would have pretty much said put all your money on Usman winning and then with one minute to go, Leon Edwards hits that head kick and wins. So you can't count anybody out. Nate Diaz almost pulled off a huge comeback against Leon Edwards, you know, a little over a year ago. Let's not forget that. You know, he had Leon on the ropes in that fifth round, and that is now the Welterweight champion of the world. So don't count out Nate Diaz.

In no way, shape, or form should you count him out. but I do think Hamza Tchamayev is as good as advertised, and I think it's going to be really tough for an aid to get a win this weekend. All right, folks, want to say a big thank you, as always, for everyone that tunes into the fighter versus the writer. We'll be back next week as we wrap up UFC 279 coverage. Also a big thank you to both of our guests this week, of course, Nick Young and Kevin Holland for being on the show. Really appreciate them. Nick Young, of course, fighting on the social gloves event this Saturday night from L.A.

On Fight TV, so check that out. of course the UFC 279 pay-per-view will also be Saturday night and we'll have all your coverage locked in at MMAfighting.com. Always check out the podcast on all of your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course over on MMAFiting.com. We'll see you guys next week for another edition of the Fighter versus the Writer. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then.