Michael ‘Venom’ Page was bamboozled when Kevin Holland told him he looked “moisturised” during their UFC fight.
The 37-year-old Briton is no stranger to showmanship in the Octagon, known for fighting with his hands low while taunting his opponents during his fights. So UFC fans were incredibly excited when it was announced in 2024 that he would be fighting Holland in his promotional debut – a man who also had a tendency to talk to his opponents in the cage.
MMA fans will know all too well about Holland’s quips while dodging punches and kicks from some of the world’s toughest fighters, famously asking Will Santiago Jr if he’d ever sparred heavyweight king Jon Jones and telling Jacare Souza “I swear I had a dream about this” while the Brazilian powerhouse sat in his guard and reigned down blows from above.
And while Holland seemed too focused on MVP’s unorthodox movement and fast hands to talk during their fight at Florida’s Kaseya Centre last March, he did find some time to briefly crack wise with his opponent. Speaking exclusively to Mirror Fighting ahead of his showdown with Sharapudtin Magomedov on Saturday, Page explained: “Yeah, I think sometimes all you’ve got to do is if you focus on the other person, it can kind of throw you off.
“I think that’s potentially what had happened to him. He was focused so much on me that he wasn’t really able to pull off the normal Kevin Holland that we normally see. He wasn’t talking as much, we went the whole distance and you didn’t really hear him say anything.
“We had one exchange, and he was talking about how moisturised I was – random. But yeah, that was it. He definitely wasn’t doing what he would normally do, and I think he was so focused and frustrated by trying to figure out what was going on in front of him that it stopped him from being himself.
“So yeah, I just went in there and was focused on me just being the best me that I could possibly be, and it allowed me to continue expressing myself in the same way.” Despite arguably winning in the chatting department, Holland ultimately lost the fight via unanimous decision after three hard-fought rounds.
Holland initially fought under the UFC banner on Dana White’s Contender Series in June 2018, besting the aforementioned Santiago Jr via unanimous decision, but the organisation’s president decided not to award him a contract in the big leagues due to his tendency to chat. Speaking about his decision in the past, White explained: “He was a talented guy and he won his fight, but he wouldn’t shut up.
“The entire fight he was talking to me. The whole fight. Now, any of you that have been to Las Vegas and have been to the Contender Series, it’s straight killers, okay? Everybody comes into that building and…I could do that every Tuesday for the rest of my life. It’s incredible, I love it.
“This guy comes in, and is talking s*** the entire fight, so I said, ‘I’m not signing this guy. I don’t want him, I’m not interested in him’.” However, White had a change of heart the following month when Thiago Santos’ opponent pulled out of UFC 277. After calling up a number of prospects, who each turned down the fight, White had the idea of bringing Holland into the fold for another try with the organisation.
He recalled: “I said, ‘Call Big Mouth. I wanna see if Big Mouth takes this fight’. Took the fight, came in and fought the fight, still talking s***, okay? In there with Thiago Santos – this beast ranked number 13 in the world. Took this fight on two weeks notice and is still talking. Talking so much his mouth piece fell out twice. But wow he looked good.”
Holland has been a part of the UFC ever since, facing the likes of Khamzat Chimaev, Michael Chiesa, Marvin Vettori and Page. MVP, meanwhile, has had just two fights with the promotion to date after making a name for himself in Bellator.
He beat Holland in his debut before suffering a unanimous decision loss to Ian Garry just months later – and is hoping to bounce back and improve his record of 22-3 when he takes on Dagestani phenom Magomedov in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking on his opponent’s skillset, he said: “He’s an exceptional fighter, really fun style to watch. Really explosive and powerful. Again, I just feel my combat style is one that just frustrates many. People struggle with my timing, how I can offset and mess up their timing.
“How I can land shots, how accurate I am at landing shots, how difficult it is to land a shot on me. All of those things fused together just makes for a frustrating night for most people, and then usually I find that one shot that will put them away. So that’s exactly how I see it going.”
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