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#2. UFC middleweight division: Kevin Holland vs. Kyle Daukaus
If any fighter sums up the topsy-turvy nature of the UFC in 2021, it’s probably Kevin Holland. ‘Trailblazer’ had a remarkable 2020, winning all five of his fights and signing off with a KO of Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza.
That knockout had Holland thinking about a shot at UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. However, 2021 has seen him lose to Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori, sending him tumbling back down the rankings. And worryingly, both losses showed a massive hole in Holland’s game, his takedown defense. It seems unlikely he’ll have been able to fix the issue in the five months since the loss to Vettori.
So can Kyle Daukaus, Holland’s lowest-ranked opponent since Charlie Ontiveros in October 2020, take advantage of this clear deficiency? Thankfully for Holland, Daukaus isn’t the level of wrestler that Brunson is and he probably doesn’t have takedowns as powerful as Vettori, either.
He is a well-rounded fighter, though, and one who prefers to grapple. Eight of his 10 wins came via submissions. Holland has only been submitted twice in his career. But it is worth noting that one of those came to Brendan Allen in 2019. Allen and Daukaus fought last year in the UFC and their fight looked essentially like two mirror images facing off.
Is that worrying for Holland? Perhaps. If Daukaus can get him down, then ‘Trailblazer’ may well find himself in trouble, particularly if he can’t get up from underneath him. However, Holland is definitely the more proven of the two. He’s also highly dangerous on the ground in his own right, even if his wrestling remains a major issue.
This one could honestly go either way. Holland’s record may well have been pumped up a little too much after his win over an aging Jacare and outside of that, his best win is probably Alessio Di Chirico or Gerald Meerschaert. However, Daukaus is even less proven than that and so a win for Holland seems like the more reasonable outcome to predict.
The Pick: Holland via decision
