Kevin Holland is jumping into another short-notice fight.
The UFC is celebrating Mexican Independence Day this year with a special Noche UFC event on September 16th headlined by Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 2 for the women’s flyweight title. Now Holland has confirmed that he’ll be fighting on the card as well against an (as of yet) unnamed fighter.
“Big Mouth” made the announcement in a rather unique fashion by thanking the UFC for “buying him a taco truck.” Hanging out the side door of a food truck, Holland put on a bad Hispanic accent and kept it on for the whole video.
“Woohoo! Ola! ‘Big Mouth’ here,” he said. “Me want to thank Dana ‘Blanco’ White and the UFC for my taco truck. I got me a taqueria and I’m out here in Dallas, Texas having a good ol’ time. So ultimately I’d like to thank Prediction Strike as well because now that I’m up 20% I think my tacos will go up 40%. Holla at your boy and see you September 16th!”
What the hell was that all about? Holland may be doing more than a semi-racist impression. He may also be giving us an answer to who he’s fighting next. In a recent interview with The Schmo, “Big Mouth” said he was ready to fill in after Shavkat Rakhmonov lost his original opponent for Noche UFC.
“He’s a beast, he doesn’t know defeat, I’d gladly fight him,” Kevin said. “Just give me my regular rate and a taco truck. It’s September 16, Mexico’s independence day, so let them pay me my regular rate, pull out the taco truck and I’m in.”
So is Kevin Holland not-so-subtly saying the Rakhmonov fight is on? It seems like the obvious answer, but there’s another tantalizing possibility out there: Jack Della Maddalena is also on the lookout for a future opponent, and rumor has it no one is willing to travel to Australia to fight him.
When Maddalena’s original UFC 290 opponent withdrew, Holland was there offering to scrap. The UFC didn’t bite on the offer because Kevin was already booked to fight Michael Chiesa at UFC 291. “Big Mouth” would go on to win that fight via first round D’Arce choke (watch the highlights here).
Both opponents are pretty exciting possibilities, and they add some much needed depth to the September 16th card. We’ll keep you updated as this booking comes along.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
