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#3 UFC Middleweight Division: Kevin Holland vs. Makhmud Muradov
After reeling off three wins in a row and going 6-2 in his UFC career overall, this is probably Holland’s big chance to really move up the ladder at Middleweight. Trailblazer has finished two of his last three fights, and with a win in a main card showcase fight, he’d probably be given a ranked opponent for his next outing.
However, this looks like an unbelievably tricky fight for him. Muradov is unheralded, but he’s already 2-0 in his UFC career, and overall, he looks like a genuinely terrifying prospect. A native of Uzbekistan, Mach is 24-6 overall, but you’ve got to go back to 2016 to find the last time he lost. And of those 24 wins, he’s finished a ridiculous 19 – 16 of them by KO.
An absolutely phenomenal athlete, Muradov is fast, powerful, and aggressive to a tilt. Judging from the footage on him, his gameplan always remains the same. He’ll wade forward with hard, accurate combinations, looking to blitz his opponents from the off. And if he can’t take them outstanding, he’s more than happy to dump them to the ground to punish them there.
As far as weaknesses go, only one really seems to stick out. In his UFC debut against Alessio Di Chirico, he seemed too happy to be sucked into a brawl in the last round. That’s always risky for any fighter, even a striker as good as Muradov, and sure enough, it allowed Di Chirico his only success of the fight.
Holland, meanwhile, is a solid fighter in all areas. He packs KO power on the feet, and he’s a capable grappler too, and obviously, he has far more UFC experience than Muradov. However, the issue for him is that judging on footage at least, he’s likely going to be outgunned here by a superior athlete who’s quicker and hits a lot harder.
I could be very wrong, and Muradov might gas out and fail against his trickiest opponent to date, but I’m convinced he’s the real deal. Holland will likely put up a very hard fight, but I suspect he’ll end up overwhelmed by the sheer aggression of Mach and will probably end up taking a beating en route to a decision loss.
The Pick: Muradov via unanimous decision
