The main event of UFC on ABC 2 offered its participants a unique upside. A chance at serious title contention for Marvin Vettori, and immediate redemption for Kevin Holland. Title contention was the mandate made good on by the Italian.
The fight opened with an expletive-laden moment, as an errant kick by Holland to Vettori’s groin paused the proceedings for a short time. When the action restarted, “Trailblazer” seemed like a handful on the feet for his counterpart, forcing Vettori to work towards using his gifts on the mat. After several moments of clinching on the cage, Vettori got the takedown he wanted and was able to control for a minute until an outstanding reversal by Holland forced the fight back up. It was a round where Holland looked fast and disciplined.
Round two was a lot like the end of round one, but this time Vettori got it to the mat sooner, controlled with greater ease, and scored more points. Opening a cut over his opponent’s eye that caused notable swelling. Holland’s resistance seemed to dissipate in the second frame as Vettori put him into a grinding wrestling match.
The third was a story of another round and another takedown for “Dream,” but even quicker than the last round. This time just 30 seconds in. Soon after he had the full mount and locked in what seemed like a deep arm-triangle choke. Holland survived it. However, Vettori was looking by far the stronger man.
Rounds four and five were more of the same. Holland did have flashes of pulling a win out of sure defeat, but those moments were fleeting. From rounds two to five, Vettori took his American foe to his wrestling class, Italiano-style. By the time the judges announced their decision, there were no surprises in store as Vettori earned a workman-like five-round unanimous decision. Going back to his fight just three weeks ago, the 28-year-old Holland has shown severe wrestling deficiencies for nearly 10 straight rounds.
The sixth-ranked Vettori has now won five straight and is a serious contender for an opportunity at Israel Adesanya’s thrown at middleweight. However, if Robert Whittaker were successful in his main event match-up next weekend with Kelvin Gastelum, it would be hard not to give the former champ another crack at the current king of the division.
After a breakout year in 2020, winning all five of his bouts, Holland has started 2021 by losing two straight. His momentum has been totally derailed, and he has some major holes in his grappling that need to be fixed before he can be taken seriously again as a top-10 middleweight.
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