Kevin Holland vs. Kyle Daukaus - UFC Vegas 38 Preview

Fourteenth ranked, Kevin Holland will be taking on Kyle Daukaus in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 38 this weekend. UFC Vegas 38 is set to be headlined by light heavyweight contenders, Thiago Santos, and Johnny Walker. The card will take place exclusively on ESPN+ with the prelims starting at 4:00 pm ET and the main card starting at 7:00 pm ET. Today we will be taking a deeper look into the matchup between Kevin Holland and Kyle Daukaus.

Kevin Holland

Kevin Holland comes into this fight with a professional record of 21 wins and seven losses. 12 of those 21 wins are by knockout and five of those wins are via submission. He has yet to be knocked out in his professional career and has only been submitted twice. Holland is currently riding a two-fight losing streak. Losing decisions to both Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori. Prior to those two losses, Holland was on a five-fight win streak in the UFC. All five of those fights taking place in 2020. Kevin Holland’s UFC record is 8-4 and his other two losses come to Thiago Santos and Brendan Allen. His biggest wins to date include Ronaldo Jacare Souza, Darren Stewart, Joaquin Buckley, and Alessio Di Chirico.

Kevin Holland has moved his training camp to San Jose, California to the American Kickboxing Academy to train with guys like Daniel Cormier and Khabib Nurmagomedov. In his last two fights, Holland was dominated by high-level wrestling which is why he decided to train with the wrestling gurus at AKA. He will also be cornered for the first time by Johny Hendricks this weekend. Holland has a second-degree black belt in Kung Fu and a black belt in BJJ under Travis Lutter. If Holland can perfect his takedown defense and keep the fight on the feet, he can compete with the very best in the middleweight division.

Kyle Daukaus

Kyle Daukaus will come into this fight with a professional record of 10-2 with eight of those 10 wins being by submission. Daukaus is 1-2 in the UFC losing decisions to Brendan Allen and Phil Hawes. His one UFC win was a decision victory over Dustin Stoltzfus at UFC 255 in November 2020. Daukaus is a former CFFC middleweight champion and defended his belt twice before making his UFC debut. He fought once on the contender series in 2019 where he won a decision over Michael Lombardo.

Daukaus comes from a BJJ background training at Martinez BJJ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Surprisingly enough, Daukaus went 4-5 in his amateur career before going on a nine-fight winning streak after turning pro. Prior to the UFC, Daukaus’ biggest wins were against Nolan Norwood, Stephen Regman, and Michael Lombardo.

The Matchup

Kevin Holland will have a significant five-inch reach advantage over Daukaus although they are the same height. Their Jiu-Jitsu matches up pretty well but from what we have seen, Holland will definitely have an advantage in the striking. Although, Daukaus has shown in his few fights in the UFC that he does have power in his hands. The one opponent these two have in common is Brendan Allen. Holland was submitted by Allen while Daukaus lost a unanimous decision. This fight will come down to which man can implement their game plan better.