Stephen Thompson and Kevin Holland had a sort of gentlemen’s agreement heading into their headlining bout at UFC on ESPN 42.
It resulted in one of the year’s most entertaining bouts, as Thompson and Holland engaged in a standup-friendly affair that resulted in a technical knockout victory for “Wonderboy” after four rounds. While Holland landed a pair of takedowns in the contest, on both occasions he elected to let his opponent up rather than rack up top control time. That was a theme for the entire fight.
“It was kind of one of those unwritten rules that we had going into this fight,” Thompson said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference.