Kevin Holland has determined that Israel Adesanya is now a bonafide loser following the outcome of the UFC 259 main event.
At UFC 259, Israel Adesanya tried to do what only a select few before him were able to achieve: become a simultaneous two-division world champion. It looked like he could have been on his way to achieving this after the first three rounds, but Jan Blachowicz would leave no doubt who the better man was in the championship rounds. Adesanya chalked it up as a shameless attempt at greatness. #10-ranked Kelvin Holland, on the other hand, classified it as a total failure (h/t SCMP).
“He’s a great fighter, but when the fighting gets to fighting, he’s just a fighter,” Holland told the South China Morning Post. “It was a good, good fight. He ‘dared to be great’, and now he knows he’s not great.
“So all that conversation we had about being on top of the mountain, I guess he’s not on top of the mountain. Keep f****** climbing bucko, keep climbing.”
Holland wasn’t quite finished. During UFC media day, he went a great leap forward and declared that not only is Adesanya not great, but that he is the human embodiment of a loser.
“In a lot of other sports, when you’re the champ and you lose, you’re no longer the champ anymore. Granted, he went up a weight class, but shit, the dude lost.
“Is there any other fighter right now that has done just about every combat sport and lost in every combat sport? Is there? So I guess you could say he’s a true loser.”
Holland’s harsh take could be attributed to the bad blood that exists between the two that he’s alluded to in the past. Or it could simply be a case of competitive peer banter. Regardless of the impetus behind Holland’s hot take, in Adesanya’s defense, he remains a world champion in the consensus best MMA promotion in the world. So his status as a “true loser” is debatable to say the absolute least.
What are your thoughts on Kevin Holland designating Israel Adesanya as a “true loser” after his UFC 259 loss to Jan Blachowicz?
