Outside Source
In 2017—a year where Kevin Holland (28-15, 1 NC) competed four times prior to joining the UFC the following year—Holland put his belt from Texas-based league Xtreme Knockout on the line at 185 pounds. That night on Jan. 28 at the Gas Monkey Live in Dallas—in a venue now defunct—Holland and Geoff Neal (16-7) threw down for the good part of three rounds. With 70 seconds to go in the third round, Holland dispatched Neal with a prolonged flurry of punches. It marked the second-to-last time that Neal competed at middleweight.
On Thursday night, Holland took it upon himself to announce that he would be fighting in his home state of Texas again on Feb. 21. Likely on the main card of the Sean Strickland–Anthony Hernandez-helmed Fight Night, Holland and Neal will run it back. Both 170-pound athletes come into this contest having lost two of their last three.
Activity Is the Name of the Game
The ultra-active Holland made five walks to the UFC cage in 2025, albeit coming out of it with a sub-.500 record. A pair of “Performance of the Night”-winning welterweight victories over Gunnar Nelson and Vicente Luque kept “Trailblazer” on the right end of the cut line, but a trio of defeats in recent memory to Reinier de Ridder, Daniel Rodriguez and Mike Malott—the latter two via decision, with the Malott loss tarnished by multiple groin strikes absorbed by Holland—have kept him out of the top 15.
Neal has been far less active compared to his adversary, appearing just once in 2025 when he faced Carlos Prates in August. Neal succumbed to a spinning back elbow from the flashy Brazilian at the tail end of the first round, in the process losing for the second time in his career via strikes. The first time? Holland. In the past couple years, “Handz of Steel” can hang his hat on triumphs against names like Luque, Santiago Ponzinibbio and Rafael dos Anjos.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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