Kevin Holland vs Alex Oliveira
Kevin Holland makes the move down to welterweight for the first time in his UFC career, looking to recapture the form that carried him to five victories in 2020. Welcoming him to the division is Brazil’s Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira, who will look to add to the newcomer’s slide while halting one of his own.
The talkative and boisterous Holland entered 2021 with a ton of hype and momentum after closing out a five-win year in 2020 with a first-round knockout win over Jacare Souza. Two fights later, all that buzz was gone, as Holland got out-worked and out-wrestled by Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori in consecutive losses spaced 20 days apart.
He returned to the Octagon in early October in a bout with Kyle Daukaus, where the two clashed heads midway through the first round, resulting in the fight ultimately being declared a no contest. They were expected to run it back a month later, but Holland was forced out of the rematch, and subsequently opted to switch divisions.
Now in his eighth year on the UFC roster, Oliveira enters on a three-fight slide. The 34-year-old was the first UFC welterweight to fall to Shavkat Rakhmonov, losing to the unbeaten “Nomad” at UFC 254, and then caught back-to-back losses in bouts against Randy Brown and Nike Price last year, dropping his record to 11-9 with one no contest in 21 UFC starts.
Will a change in scenery be the remedy to Holland’s recent struggles or will the Brazilian veteran add to his misery while ending his own extended skid?
Serghei Spivac vs Greg Hardy
Saturday’s main card starts in the heavyweight division, as Moldovan “Polar Bear” Serghei Spivac looks to get back into the win column when he takes on Dana White’s Contender Series graduate Greg Hardy.
The 27-year-old Spivac made three appearances in 2021, securing a second-round stoppage win over Jared Vanderaa in February before collecting a unanimous decision victory over Aleksei Oleinik four months later to push his winning streak to three. He landed on the wrong side of the results against Tom Aspinall in September, but remains an intriguing name to watch in the heavyweight division heading into this one.
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Hardy has already fought nine times in his first three years on the UFC roster, but after a quick start and some positive results, things have slowed down and been more of a struggle for the DWCS alum. The 33-year-old had a tidy two-fight winning streak snapped by veteran Marcin Tybura in his third appearance of 2020, and followed that up with a knockout loss to surging contender Tai Tuivasa in his lone appearance last year.
Both men have stood on the brink of breaking into the Top 15 in the past, and one of them will draw closer to accomplishing that feat this weekend. Spivac is the more experienced, more technical fighter, while Hardy remains an explosive athlete still trying to piece things together as a mixed martial artist.
It will be interesting to see which one prevails on Saturday night.
