Two action fighters in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division will clash
in October.
The organization has added Chris
Curtis (31-11, 1 NC) vs. Kevin
Holland (26-11, 1 NC) to the billing of UFC 307
on Oct. 5, courtesy of an initial announcement by Curtis’
management team Iridium
Sports Agency on Monday. The former welterweights who have swum
in the same circles for years will finally throw down, likely doing
so in the Delta Center in Salt Lake City—although that venue is not
official. The middleweight pairing has since been confirmed by
Holland on social media.
“The Action Man” is coming off a pair of split decisions leading up
to this expected main card excursion, winning one against Marc-Andre
Barriault in January and dropping a five-rounder to Brendan
Allen in April. While the well-traveled Curtis had experienced
success introducing himself to the promotion in 2021 and 2021,
beating Phil Hawes,
Allen and Rodolfo
Vieira, he has struggled since then, winning just two of six.
His other win since then came over Joaquin
Buckley, putting the high-flying striker away with strikes in
the second round at UFC 282.
Texas’ Holland has had alternating success as he shifted back and
forth between weight classes. “Trailblazer” notably took an
extremely late-notice fight against Khamzat
Chimaev at UFC 279, facing the rebooked “Borz” with just a few
hours of prep while giving up nearly 10 pounds on the scale. He
subsequently fell short to names like Stephen
Thompson and Michael
Page, but has finished the likes of Santiago
Ponzinibbio and Michal
Oleksiejczuk in recent memory.
UFC 307 will likely go down at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City,
with no headliner currently on the books. The women’s bantamweight
title is rumored to be up for grabs on Oct. 5, with Raquel
Pennington defending her strap against Julianna
Pena. Additional matchups already booked include a
featherweight contest pitting Movsar
Evloev against Aljamain
Sterling, a strawweight scrap when Marina
Rodriguez faces Iasmin
Lucindo and a middleweight encounter pitting Cesar
Almeida against Ihor
Potieria.