Roman Dolidze and Kevin Holland were the second fight in on the UFC 307 main card in a middleweight fight, with Holland looking for his second straight victory since returning to 185lbs.
Dolidze was also coming off a win, in his case up a weight class against former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith.
The fight began with Dolidze taking the center of the octagon and Holland circling on the outside. Holland began immediately attacking the legs of his opponent with leg kicks. Kevin caught a leg kick from Dolidze and was able to land a couple of solid strikes upstairs. As the round continued, Holland began to swing a little more wildly. With about three minutes left in the round, Holland threw another leg kick, which Roman caught and used to take him down. Dolidze immediately went to work and threw short strikes from Holland’s closed guard.
Kevin looked comfortable however and was able to keep from taking any meaningful damage. With just under a minute left in the round, Holland went for an armbar. As Holland rolled and went for the armbar he contorted his midsection and seemingly injured his rib. That caused him to immediately shell up. Dolidze sized the opportunity, moving to full mount and landing devastating ground n’ pound on Kevin. Holland did a great job of shelling up as he was obviously incredibly hurt. Somehow,
Kevin miraculously survived the round but ultimately, his coach stopped him from answering the call for the second round less than a minute later. Holland’s rib was very obviously injured, and it was the right call on behalf of the safety of the fighter.
Official Result: Roman Dolidze def. Kevin Holland by TKO (rib injury), Round 1, 5:00
