Some of Holland’s best highlights have come in battles with UFC veterans such as Jacare Souza, Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira, Tim Means, and Santiago Ponzinibbio. He’ll look to continue that trend against Chiesa.
It will be Holland’s 19th fight in the UFC, which is wild to think about, considering he made his Octagon debut less than five years ago. He even has more fights than Chiesa (17 UFC fights) who has been in the UFC since winning The Ultimate Fighter in 2012.
Holland has hollowed out a lane for himself in the UFC, being busy in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions while taking short notice fights. He’s happy with how that’s turned out, and sees this fight with Chiesa as the next step in his plan.
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“Honestly, I like fighting the guys that are more like middle of the division because I always win those fights, but the guys at the top of the division, I seem to lose those ones,” Holland laughed. “So, trying to avoid those guys. The goal is to beat Chiesa then go fight cans for a year or two, and then fight another guy in the Top 15 then go fight cans again.”
“I got it all figured out. I got this “Suga” Sean O’Malley / Kevin approach. Play it smart; my style is to take a couple steps back, then play it smart again.”
