Holland meets the Malott at UFC Fight Night
Kevin Holland, known as the “Trailblazer,” will be at UFC Fight Night to face the grappler Mike Malott or “Proper”. Overall, this fight currently has Holland favored to win largely by decision based on his past fights. However, Holland’s past fights have been a rollercoaster, resulting in two wins over five fights, while “Proper” has remained proper in winning four of his past five fights. Holland, though, has a significant record of 28-14-0 versus Malott’s record of 12-2-1. This experience could counter the striking pattern seen in Mike’s last fights as well as his grappling submissions. If countering properly, Holland could capitalize on Mike’s weak defense on the ground if he avoids his submission attempts accurately.
The fight would simply be prolonged too if it stays with them both standing. Holland’s stamina could be recovered, though, as he has taken three months off from his last fight, where he has hopefully analyzed how that fight led to a unanimous decision against him. Holland could even replicate Jiří Procházka’s win, being of a similar age and facing an opponent who has shown to be agile at taking striking opponents down to the ground. This scenario would involve Holland standing for the entirety of the fight and utilizing his much longer reach to keep Mike properly away. On average, too, Holland does not like to take things to the ground, so standing and putting together a combo of deadly blows could knock the wind out of Malott’s sails midway through the fight.
Overall, Holland is the favorite pick to win not only because of his reach but also because of his well-rounded familiarity on the ground. His defense, as stated above, could counter, but it could also simply exhaust Mike without the need for an attempt at a submission to even take place. Mike is known to go for takedowns, and doing so early may not be in his favor. Instead, Malott will need to hold off and get close to cancel out Holland’s reach. However, this fight will end with a KO/TKO or a grappling match for a submission. It remains clear that “Trailblazer” more than likely will be going all five rounds with “Proper” if Mike is cautious and does not attempt any takedowns too early.
