It’s been just a few years, however Kevin Holland will attempt to proper his ship at middleweight at UFC 302.
Holland (25-11 MMA, 12-8 UFC) will transfer up from welterweight to fulfill Michal Oleksiejczuk (19-7 MMA, 7-5 UFC) at 185 kilos when the UFC returns to New Jersey subsequent month. Promotion officers introduced the brand new reserving throughout the UFC on ESPN 56 broadcast from St. Louis.
UFC 302 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) takes place June 1 at Prudential Heart in Newark, N.J.
Holland has back-to-back losses to Jack Della Maddalena and Michael Web page, each by determination, at welterweight. These setbacks got here on the heels of two of the most important wins of his profession – stoppages of Santiago Ponzinibbio and Michael Chiesa, the latter of which was a bonus winner at UFC 291 10 months in the past.
Oleksiejczuk is only a couple months faraway from a 61-second submission loss to Michel Pereira at UFC 299 in Miami. He was seeking to put collectively a successful streak after a bonus-winning first-round TKO of Chidi Njokuani in August 2023, however now should attempt to keep away from his first dropping skid since 2019-2020.
With the addition, the UFC 302 lineup now contains:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
- Champ Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier – for light-weight title
- Paulo Costa vs. Sean Strickland
- Kevin Holland vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
- Jailton Almeida vs. Alexandr Romanov
- Cesar Almeida vs. Roman Kopylov
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)
- Randy Brown vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
- Grant Dawson vs. Joe Solecki
- Alex Morono vs. Niko Value
- Jake Matthews vs. Phil Rowe
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN2/ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)
- Joselyne Edwards vs. Ailin Perez
- Mickey Gall vs. Bassil Hafez
- Andre Lima vs. Nyamjargal Tumendemberel
- Tatsuro Taira vs. Joshua Van
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