Next weekend’s UFC event in Las Vegas has a new headliner after England’s Darren Till was forced to withdraw from a scheduled bout against fellow European banger Marvin Vettori.
Kevin Holland, one of the standout fighters of 2020, will get a second opportunity to register his first win of the year after reports were confirmed that he will replace Till in the main event against Italian middleweight Vettori. Holland first hinted that the deal had been completed via a video posted to social media late Thursday, with several online sources since confirming it.
Update April 1st, 2021 pic.twitter.com/IAkryJWTZx
— Kevin Holland (@Trailblaze2top) April 1, 2021
After winning five fights last year to shoot himself into the UFC’s middleweight rankings, Holland’s momentum ground to a halt last month when he was easily outpointed through five rounds by 185-pound veteran Derek Brunson. Holland blamed his subdued performance on concerns about going 25-minutes for the first time in his career — but later admitted that he felt ‘fine’ in the cage, and that he shouldn’t have attempted to conserve so much energy earlier in the fight.
Vettori, meanwhile, has won four straight fights in the UFCs middleweight division, most recently besting Jack Hermansson last December. He has since made clear his aim for a rematch with 185-pound champ Israel Adesanya after losing to ‘The Last Stylebender’ via close split decision in what was Adesanya’s UFC debut in 2018.
