"Fight cans for a year or two" - Kevin Holland draws from Sean O'Malley's handbook in planning his career trajectory

Sean O'Malley has inspired UFC welterweight Kevin Holland to plan his future fights smartly. Holland is set to face Michael Chiesa at UFC 291 at The Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. It will be Holland's second fight of the calendar year and he will be hoping to produce the same result as last time.

Kevin Holland knocked out Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC 287 back in April and will be eager to build on that victory. In an interview with the UFC, Holland spoke about his approach to his future fights.

'Trailblazer' mentioned his inconsistent record against higher-ranked opponents and expressed his eagerness to "play it smart" and avoid difficult fights by alternating between ranked and unranked fighters.

Holland likened his approach to bantamweight contender Sean O'Malley and said:

“Really honestly, I like fighting the guys that are more like middle of the division, 'cause I always win those fights, but the guys at the top of the division, I seem to lose those ones. So tryna avoid those guys. It’s like, the goal is to beat Chiesa and then go fight cans for a year or two. And then fight another guy in the top 15 and then go back to fighting cans again. I got it all figured out, I gotta go like this Sugar Sean/Kevin approach, you know what I mean. Play it smart. My style is to take a couple steps back and then play it smart again.”

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Sean O'Malley addresses Aljamain Sterling's comments about fighting against his will

Sean O'Malley is set to face bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 for the title.

Sterling recently made comments complaining about taking on the fight against his will. O'Malley addressed them in a press conference prior to UFC 290 and dismissed the champion's statements as "a built-in excuse":

“He’s been very vocal, he’s got some kind of bicep injury or something. He said that before the last fight against Henry [Cejudo]. It’s a built-in excuse to say, ‘Oh, I got these injuries and I’m going into this fight,’ and I beat him, and he’s like, ‘Well, you guys already knew. I said I was injured, I didn’t want to fight.' Built-in excuse is what it sounds like. He’s going to make the fight. He’s going to get paid, he’s going to make it there."

Sean O'Malley asserted that Aljamain Sterling viewed him as a threat and would therefore show up in his best version.

Check out his full comments below (9:40):