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Mixed martial arts | Friday, December 2, 2022 2:42 PM

UFC Fight Night Thompson vs Holland Best Bet: Trailblazer Stops Wonderboy

UFC Fight Night Thompson vs Holland Best Bet: Trailblazer Stops Wonderboy
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UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs Holland Best Bet: Saturday, December 3rd

The main event of UFC Fight Night this weekend will feature two striking experts facing off against each other in the Welterweight division. We are of course talking about the bout between Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson and Kevin ‘Trailblazer’ Holland.

In this article:


Stephen Thompson vs Kevin Holland Preview

Sun, Dec 4. TBD

Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson will be making his 24th appearance in the octagon this weekend after a 1-year break. He is hoping to put an end to his 2-fight losing streak, having suffered a decision loss to Belal Mohammad in December of 2021. Thompson has been with the UFC since 2012 and with an MMA record of 16 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw, he is one of the few veterans remaining in the division.

Thompson is mostly known for his striking skills, primarily his kicks, stance changes and range. He isn’t the most aggressive fighter and prefers to work off of counters and from range. He isn’t really known as a very good grappler, but it’s not like this is going to be an issue here. The biggest issue for Thompson tonight is going to be his age. He is 39 years old, and his birthday is coming up in February. He hasn’t fought in almost a year and at that age, it’s difficult to imagine him being at the top of his game this weekend.

In the red corner, we have Kevin ‘Trailblazer’ Holland, the freshly 30-year-old striker out of California. Holland made his UFC debut 4 years ago, but has already fought 16 times in that span. He holds an MMA record of 23 wins and 8 losses and is coming off a dominant submission loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279. He is certainly the most vocal fighter the UFC has, and he loves talking to his opponents during fights in order to deconcentrate them.

Holland is also known as a prominent striker in the division, but his game is mostly based on his boxing skills. He doesn’t do a lot of kicking, and his style is very unorthodox and difficult to predict. This makes him very dangerous, as he already has 13 KO/TKO wins under his belt. That said, grappling has been a big issue in his game in the last 2 years, as he has lost against Brunson and Vettori due to poor takedown defence and BJJ skills. He has been working on improving his grappling skills lately and there has been significant improvements, but he is still far from where he needs to be.


Stephen Thompson vs Kevin Holland Best Bet

The bookmakers have Thompson available at 2.45 to win whilst Holland is at 1.64. There is a good reason for this. Holland is almost a decade younger than his opponent tonight has an 8-centimetre height advantage, as well as a 15-centimetre reach advantage.

I expect this to be a very difficult match-up for Thompson, as he is used to being the rangier fighter who can wait for opponents to attack and work off of counters. This time around, he will be the one who was to come into the pocket, and we all know how good Holland’s one-twos are. I don’t feel confident predicting a TKO, but I am definitely going to back Trailblazer to get back into the win column.

  • Selection: Holland to Win
  • Best Odds: 1.64 (Unibet)
  • Stakes: 8/10

Odds as of 1:00 pm December 2nd, 2022. Odds may now differ.


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