Kevin Holland added to Noche UFC: ‘See you in September!’

Kevin Holland is jumping into another short-notice fight.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is celebrating Mexican Independence Day this year with a special “Noche UFC” event inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sept. 16, 2023, 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, too, thanking 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 heck 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,” Holland 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 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 opponents withdrew (there were several), Holland was there offering to scrap. UFC didn’t bite on the offer because Holland was already booked to fight Michael Chiesa at UFC 291 (it also had a much cheaper option). “Big Mouth” would go onto win that bout via first round D’Arce choke (watch highlights here).

Both opponents are pretty exciting possibilities, and they add some much-needed depth to the Sept. 16 “Sin City” card. We’ll keep you updated as this booking comes along.