On Wednesday the UFC announced Nick Diaz would make a return to fighting when he takes on Vicente Luque in August, but according to Kevin Holland, that wasn't the UFC's first choice.
“I was supposed to take a fight at 170 against a pretty big-name opponent, but they said he wasn’t going to be able to fight until August and I said, ‘Damn, that’s a long time.’ And they’re like, ‘Bro, it’s only an extra month.’ And I was like, ‘Nah, that’s too long,'” Holland said during his UFC 302 media day interview. “So I got this, and I’m happy with it. I guess that (other) fight is not going to circle back because I see he just got booked, so let’s see what happens after.”
Holland said, unlike many fans, he wasn't shocked to hear Diaz wanted to fight again.
“I knew he was going to come back to fight, so I just thought I was going to smoke him, and then I was going to smoke Luque, too,” Holland said. “Those two are fighting each other, so they can smoke each other. Two big a— joints.”
Holland fights Michal Oleksiejczuk on the UFC 302 main card on June 1. Diaz fights Luque on August 3 in Abu Dhabi.