Kevin Holland says Israel Adesanya fight not exciting: 'Now he's just some guy who can't stop running backwards'

Fighting Israel Adesanya would not excite Kevin Holland.

Holland (26-11 MMA, 13-8 UFC) takes on Roman Dolidze (13-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 307 (pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+) main card opener at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

Holland has always shown his willingness to fight anyone, and even defended the UFC against fighters who complain about pay. He argued that activity is what gets you paid as he enters his third fight of 2024, and 11th in the past three years.

With Adesanya (24-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) no longer in the current middleweight title picture, Holland was asked about a potential matchup with “The Stylebender,” but he surprisingly dismissed it.

“Not really,” Holland told ESPN. “It would have been exciting beating him as the champ. Now he’s just some guy who can’t stop running backwards and getting clipped and throwing a lot of leg kicks. At the end of the day, guys fighting like that, they play the chess match where they’re just doing (leg kicks) all night. It’s like, that’s boring.

“I’d rather fight Paulo Costa than fight Izzy because at least Paulo’s going to actually come out there and fight, when he actually wants to fight. Izzy is going to go out there and (throw leg kicks) all night, and I ain’t got time for that. I mean, if he wants to scrap, we can scrap. It doesn’t matter who it is. We can figure out something.”

Adesanya is coming off back-to-back title losses Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis. He still has the desire to compete – even if it doesn’t involve the title.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.