HOUSTON – UFC fighter Kevin Holland chatted with KPRC 2′s Ari Alexander on Wednesday about his part in a Monday night takedown of an alleged shooter at Ra Sushi in Highland Village.
Holland had done minimal interviews as he wasn’t seeking credit, but with word spreading quickly of his heroics anyway, he caught up with KPRC 2 to describe what happened that night.
“Yeah, a guy came in,” Holland told Alexander. “He didn’t start shooting at the ceiling. He didn’t get a chance to get off too many shots. He came in, I guess he was contemplating a little bit of what he wanted to do. He pulled his gun out, shot the ceiling, and before he could move that gun anywhere else, one guy had already jumped on him. I heard the big bang. I thought it was maybe the people behind me popping a champagne bottle because they were having a birthday party. [I] realized quickly it wasn’t champagne when I turned around, seeing people running and glass breaking. And you could feel the wind from the gun, you know. So that was going on, I looked over to the side as I’m getting down, pulling my uncle down, and I realize that the shooter and another guy are fighting and the guy’s trying to grab the gun from him, but the gun’s facing our direction. So I circle around the bar, I go over there and pick up a chair like I’m going to hit the guy. But when you get over there, you can’t really tell who’s the shooter and who’s the guy wrestling for the gun. You get a closer look, and taking a closer look, you realize who’s the shooter and you don’t really need the chair. I grab the gun with the guy, we face it down towards the ground, and then I’m like, ‘We’re upstairs – this shouldn’t be facing down.’ So we point it facing up in the air. So as it’s up in the air, he’s pulling it still, I hit the wrist, the [other] guy pulls the gun free, I pull him back, sit him in my lap, put him in the rear-necked choke, and yeah we choked him out and my uncle was there to pay attention to the guy’s eyes. He saw when the guy went out. We got on top, we took the backpack that he had and moved that to the side. They already had taken the gun and re-positioned the gun – that was all she wrote. We waited until the cops came and the guy was apprehended and we were able to pay the bill and go home and call it a night.”
When asked if the stress of the situation had sunk in later Monday evening, Holland said gratitude overcame all.
“[I was] happy to get back to the Airbnb, happy to still be with the family and everybody be safe, happy to go shopping the next day, and happy to be home today,” Holland said. “All in all, there were too many things to be thankful for to be stressed out, if that makes sense.”
This isn’t the first time Holland has been a hero. This past October, he stopped an alleged carjacking.
And he was also fresh off of his most recent UFC fight on March 5, a win by TKO over Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira that improved Holland’s UFC record to 22-7, with one no contest.
“[I] thought my leg was beat up, now I’m thinking maybe my leg isn’t as beat up as I thought it was,” he said.
As for the feedback after his part in the heroics?
“All in all, everything’s been positive,” Holland said. “Trolls haven’t been trolling me the past two days, so that’s pretty cool.”