Tonight’s UFC Noche co-main event featured a welterweight bout between Kevin Holland and Jack Della Maddalena.
Holland enters the bout filled with confidence after attaining back-to-back finishes in his most recent outings. Welterweight seems to be the rightful home for Holland, and his performances are a testament to that. Holland began the calendar year with round-three finish of Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC 287, followed up by a first-round submission win over Michel Chieasa at UFC 291.
Meanwhile, JDM enters the fight boasting a handsome (15-2) record, and hasn’t tasted defeat since his second professional fight in 2016. Since then, the Aussie has put together a staggering 15-straight wins, with 13-stoppages. However, the 27-year-old scraped through his last UFC outing, defeating Bassil Hafez by split decision. The result caused some controversy, with many feeling JDM lost the fight. It’s hard to give an accurate read on the fight considering the fight was put together last minute. Since his Dana White’s Contender Series appearance, JDM holds UFC wins over Pete Rodriguez, Ramazan Emeev, Danny Roberts, and Randy Brown. A win over Holland would be the biggest scalp yet.
The fight was a closely contested back-and-forth with JDM getting the edge. Not quite the car crash people expected when this fight was put-together, but that’s what you’re going to get when two talented skilled finisher face one another. JDM landed the better and most powerful shots over the fifteen minutes, earning the Aussie a split decision victory and collecting his biggest scalp to date.
Official Noche UFC Results: Jack Della Maddalena def. Kevin Holland by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
UFC Fighters React to JDM vs. Kevin Holland
With JDM collecting the biggest win of his career so far, and proving he can hang with the best, who would you like to see the Aussie fight next? Which fight makes sense to catapult him closer to the title? Let us know in the comments!
