While Kevin Holland seems eager to fight Leon Edwards on short notice next month, the UFC middleweight contender appears to have his first five-round main event on deck this March.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported on Tuesday (before Holland made that tweet, of course) that a matchup between Holland and Derek Brunson is slotted in for March 20th at a location to be determined. Brunson accepted a fight with Holland through social media and those two do have a bit of a beef going.
Holland (21-5) has solidified himself as a name to watch at 185 lbs thanks to his 5-0 record in 2020. The 28-year-old defeated Anthony Hernandez, Joaquin Buckley, Darren Stewart, and Charlie Ontiveros and was then supposed to take on Jack Hermansson in the UFC Vegas 16 main event earlier this month. When Holland was pulled after testing positive for COVID-19, he instead took on Jacare Souza at UFC 256 and brutally knocked out the former Strikeforce champion in the opening round.
Brunson (21-7) is quietly on a three-fight winning streak after previously suffering consecutive knockout losses to Jacare Souza and Israel Adesanya. After an uneventful decision vs. Elias Theodorou, the North Carolina native handed Ian Heinisch his first UFC loss and highly touted prospect Edmen Shahbazyan his first professional defeat by third-round TKO. Current UFC rankings have Brunson at #7 and Holland at #10.
So it looks like we have a hell of a fight coming up on March… unless Holland does indeed get the call to take on Edwards at welterweight in January.