Alkass Digital
Kevin Holland “Trailblaizer” will aim to turn things around in his career by returning to the middleweight division for UFC 302. Holland, with a record of 25-11 in MMA and 12-8 in the UFC, will make the move up from welterweight to face Michal Oleksiejczuk, who holds a record of 19-7 in MMA and 7-5 in the UFC, at 185 pounds. This bout was announced during the UFC on ESPN 56 broadcast from St. Louis. UFC 302 is set to take place on June 1 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Holland is coming off consecutive losses to Jack Della Maddalena and Michael Page, both via decision, in the welterweight division. Prior to these losses, he had secured two significant victories in his career, with stoppages of Santiago Ponzinibbio and Michael Chiesa, the latter earning him a bonus at UFC 291 ten months ago.
Oleksiejczuk, on the other hand, recently suffered a quick submission defeat to Michel Pereira at UFC 299 in Miami, following a first-round TKO win over Chidi Njokuani in August 2023. He was hoping to build momentum with a win streak but now faces the challenge of avoiding his first losing streak since 2019-2020.
With this addition, the UFC 302 card features the following bouts:
Main Card:
• Islam Makhachev (C) vs. Dustin Poirier (Lightweight Title Fight)
• Paulo Costa vs. Sean Strickland (Middleweight)
• Kevin Holland vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk (Midddleweight bout)
• Jailton Almeida vs. Alexandr Romanov
• Cesar Almeida vs. Roman Kopylov
Preliminary Card includes:
• Randy Brown vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
• Grant Dawson vs. Joe Solecki
• Alex Morono vs. Niko Price
• Jake Matthews vs. Phil Rowe
• Joselyne Edwards vs. Ailin Perez
• Mickey Gall vs. Bassil Hafez
• Andre Lima vs. Nyamjargal Tumendemberel
• Tatsuro Taira vs. Joshua Van