Scouting Report: Kevin Holland

Lev PisarskyDec 02, 2022

Kevin Holland

Born: November 5, 1992 (Age: 30) in Riverside, California
Division: Welterweight
Height: 6’3”
Reach: 81”
Record: 23-8 (10-5 UFC)
Association: Main Street Boxing and Muay Thai
Stage of Career: Prime

Summary: Holland is a tremendously talented but flawed fighter. On the feet, he is difficult to handle due to the strength of his monstrous right cross and generally solid boxing, though he lacks a left hook. He also has an outstanding series of body kicks that keep opponents at bay. Moreover, Holland has proven to be a dangerous striker in the clinch. He has won many fights through his own grappling—he has been fantastic from top position—but can also be beaten in the same area, as his takedown defense is weak for his level. On the bottom, he often gets himself stuck in closed full guard and absorbs ground-and-pound. Holland tends to take risks with his grappling, which has ended with his being submitted a few times. His cardio, while improving, remains a concern, as he often fades badly in the third round. However, Holland possesses one of the best chins in the sport, allowing him to weather an insane amount of punishment with little visible effect. Unfortunately for the “Trailblazer,” he suffers from poor fight IQ and makes many bad decisions that cause him to underperform relative to his talent.

STRIKING

• Stance: Orthodox.
• Hand Speed: Significantly above average when he fought at middleweight, but no more than slightly above average at 170 pounds.
• Jab: He fails to fully extend outwards, but he can double and triple up on the punch, which gives him an advantage in most bouts.
• Cross: Straight, technical, sudden and reasonably fast, with some power. He dropped Joaquin Buckley with one, the knocked him out with another.
• Left Hook: Mediocre and flawed. Often just an arm punch, he tends to slap with it. However, because of its suddenness, he can use it as a distraction if nothing else.
• Overhand Right: Technical, with a proper arc and quickness. However, it lacks a little power.
• Uppercuts: Hardly ever throws them.
• Solitary Striker or Volume Puncher: Can throw punches in bunches when an opponent is hurt, but they are often wide and somewhat sloppy.
• Favorite Combinations: Mainly throws the one-two, which is excellent due to the strength of his devastating cross.
• Leg Kicks: Throws them recklessly and without setup from close range, with his head on the center line. His kicks are easy to catch, although his calf kick is quite effective, with power and accuracy.
• Body Kicks: Can either throw a nice side kick or an outstanding, hard and technical front kick to the torso.
• Head Kicks: Rarely throws them.
• Chains Kicks to Punches: No.

Holland is an excellent striker overall, largely based on that phenomenal right cross. It has every property one could ever want, and if it had just a little more power, it might be one of the very best in MMA history. He has other useful punches, like a solid jab and an impressive overhand right, though his left hook is sadly little more than a distraction. His kicks are plenty dangerous, as well, with the side and front kicks to the body being particularly effective. He could stand to sharpen the technique on his combinations, and it feels strange that he does not fire off more head kicks, though perhaps the threat of being taken down concerns him.

CLINCH

• Physical Strength: Passable, but he can be bullied by stronger grapplers.
• Technique: Can get a little lazy and out of position but otherwise decent.
• Knees: Accurate and significant, they are aided by his height. Played a key role in his knockout of Alexander Hernandez.
• Elbows: Excellent. Hurt Hernandez badly with one of them.
• Defense Against Knees/Elbows: Often lackadaisical, which makes him vulnerable to those strikes.

Holland can be pushed around and taken down in the clinch, but he is also quite dangerous at close range, with exceptional knees to the body and a powerful, technical elbow he likes to throw off the break.

GRAPPLING

• Wrestling from a Shot: A mixed bag. He is surprisingly explosive and runs through it, but he bends over horribly—not even at 90 degrees but at a C-curve—and his head is way too far on the outside. Still, he managed to take down Alessio Di Chirico. Holland also uses an interesting setup in which he shoots, then immediately bails on it with a jumping knee.
• Wrestling in the Clinch: Limited, though he did memorably pick up and slam Charlie Ontiveros from a body lock.
• Takedown Defense: Slightly above average, but he was taken down at will by Marvin Vettori, Derek Brunson, Khamzat Chimaev and others.
• Ability to Return to Feet: He can post up or wall walk decently and fluidly but sometimes gives up his back in the process, hoping he can get out of a disadvantageous position. Holland struggles to hip escape.
• Submissions: Proficient in several maneuvers with which he can finish opponents.
• Defense/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from the Bottom: Inconsistent. Favors the closed full guard and going for submissions instead of getting to his feet, which leads to his eating too much ground-and-pound. His issues are exacerbated by fatigue. Holland gets into too many dangerous positions and trusts that his active submission game will be enough to get him out of any trouble. He excels at scrambles and sweeps. When opponents move to mount, he has shown an ability to turn and occasionally reverse position, as he did against Gerald Meerschaert.
• Top Control: Generally prevents opponents from getting up and has shown a proclivity for blocking hip escapes. Highly skilled grapplers can break down his pressure and get back to their feet.
• Ground-and-Pound: Uses snaking hard punches and damaging elbows.

Holland’s grappling offers some intrigue: It has been an advantage against some opponents and a weakness against others. He has a decent ability to take down opponents, and once on top, he has proven tremendously dangerous, with stifling control and brutal ground-and-pound, not to mention a variety of submissions. However, he can be taken down by good grapplers and often remains in bottom position for the remainder of the round. While he initiates scrambles and sweeps, he also absorbs considerable ground-and-pound and can be submitted. Occasional overconfidence makes this even more of an issue, as he believes he can gut out any submission in which he finds himself.

INTANGIBLES

• Athleticism/General Physical Strength: Carries plenty of explosiveness but struggles against the more powerful grapplers.
• Cardio: Acceptable, though he has a tendency to get winded and fade in the third rounds of fights. • Chin: Seemingly made of iron, as evidenced by the fact that he has never been knocked out in 32 professional appearances.
• Recuperative Powers: Likely outstanding, given his durability.
• Intelligence: Makes many head-scratching decisions. He held on to a half-guard guillotine against Meerschaert for far too long, exhausted his arms in the process and went for it again with no chance of success, dooming himself to bottom position. It also took Holland considerable time to figure out he held an advantage over Di Chirico at distance, and he foolishly put himself in grappling exchanges with Brendan Allen. One has to wonder, too, why he elected to grapple with Darren Stewart in the third round of their encounter, considering the amount of success he enjoyed at range.