Fight fans were left wanting more from one of the winners at the O2 Arena in London.
The main event on March 22 sees Leon Edwards return to the cage with the intention of making a statement against Sean Brady.
Before the former champion makes the walk, another welterweight matchup took place between two one of a kind personalities on the roster.
Heading into the fourth fight on the main card, a run of back-to-back submission wins, including Chris Duncan’s guillotine choke, helped to set the stage for the final few bouts of the evening.
Kevin Holland and Gunnar Nelson were tasked with following up the emotional retirement of Molly McCann to try and pick the UK fans back up.
Kevin Holland returns to the win column by beating Gunnar Nelson at welterweight
In terms of their personalities, fighting styles and recent activity inside the Octagon, Kevin Holland and Gunnar Nelson couldn’t be any different.
Iceland’s Nelson looked to record his first win in over two years whilst Holland has already made the walk once in 2025 as a fighter that is known for his relentless schedule and the benefits and drawbacks of this approach.
Having lost four of his last five heading into this one, March 22 could’ve been a career-defining outing for the American who has struggled to maintain consistency, much to the annoyance of the fans.
As Michael Bisping said to ‘Trailblazer’ in the post-fight interview, we got to see a little bit of everything from him across the three-round duration including some bizarre grappling exchanges.
At the end of the first round, Holland produced the defining moment of the fight when he dropped his opponent with a huge right hand before following up with some ruthless ground and pound that came incredibly close to stopping the fight.
Nelson somehow survived the onslaught but with questions surrounding whether the referee should’ve stepped in, it was always going to be difficult for ‘Gunni’ to recover.
Nelson did have some success in the fight with an arm triangle attempt in the third round appearing to be close until Holland put out his thumb to let the official know that he was fine.
In the end, the late rally from the grappling specialist wasn’t enough to sway the fight as Holland took rounds one and two for a unanimous decision of 29-28.
Despite the 32-year-old earning an important win on his return to the welterweight division, many fans took this opportunity to talk about his career as a whole.
Holland has shown throughout his run in the UFC that he can be a legitimate threat at 170-pounds but his tendency to fight often across the two weight classes has hurt his progress even if it has allowed him to remain one of the most active fighters on the roster.
As a result, there will always be a big question mark hanging over him as to how good he could actually be if his mindset was more focused.
“Kevin Holland is quite good when he actually tries,” wrote one fan whilst another had a simple solution to this problem. “UFC need to ban Kevin Holland from going up to Middleweight”
Kevin Holland isn’t going to change anytime soon
Kevin Holland has been answering questions about taking his career more seriously ever since he arrived in the UFC and that’s no different today.
Despite the fact that he has fared much better at welterweight compared to middleweight, ‘Trailblazer’ said in his post-fight interview that he’s still interested in making the move up because it means he can fight more often.
Holland even admitted that the grappling issues that some believe he has are because he’s fighting larger opponents at 185-pounds but this won’t discourage him.
This is simply the way that he is and it will continue to frustrate fans when he puts in impressive performances like he did on March 22.
