Preview: UFC London ‘Edwards vs. Brady’

Welterweights

Gunnar Nelson (19-5-1) vs. Kevin Holland (26-13, 1 N/C)
Odds: Nelson (-130), Holland (+110)

Can Holland turn things around? He was one of the UFC's breakout stars of 2020; an entertaining fighter that had mostly gone unnoticed up to that point, his trash-talking style was a perfect match for the silent arenas of the pandemic-era UFC. Add in that "Trailblazer" was willing to keep up an active schedule -- and kept winning fights -- and by the beginning of 2021, the hope was that Holland could make a march into middleweight title contention. Instead, he went winless on the year, in part thanks to some clear issues with his takedown defense at which point he cut down to welterweight in an attempt to solve his issues. Holland mostly wound up in the same place at 170 pounds that he was at 185, but he did seem to regress a bit as a fighter; while he had some underrated craft as a boxer while at middleweight, his massive size advantage at welterweight allowed him to try and get by as a cruder slugger, which worked more than it should but still left him short of any sort of title contention. Given how things stalled out, Holland spent most of the last year at middleweight just as a way to stay more active and save himself the weight cut, but that also didn't change his fortunes much; he didn't lock back in technically and mostly found himself getting out-wrestled once again. Having lost four of his last five, Holland continues to search for answers, the latest of which is another cut down to welterweight, where he'll attempt to get by Nelson.

It's a rare appearance for Iceland's Nelson, who was at his most active about a decade ago, when he was a bit of a minor star; his stoic lack of charisma was so extreme it almost turned around and became charismatic, and he was capable of putting together some impressive highlights. Nelson's dual backgrounds are in karate and grappling, and when he gets to stick to those phases, Nelson has looked excellent; he can time opponents with some sharp strikes on the feet or pull off some wizardry on the ground. But he never developed any sort of connective tissue in between those phases, with defensive wrestling proving to be a clear weakness; losses to Leon Edwards and Gilbert Burns seemingly closed Nelson's contendership window for good, and he's kept an inactive schedule since then, fighting only twice in the last half-decade. This could go wrong for Nelson, as he's hittable while he feels things out on the feet and might have a bit of rust against a particularly awkward opponent, but Holland seems increasingly willing to engage in grappling matches that he can't win, which Nelson figures to get to sooner rather than later; the pick is Nelson via first-round submission.

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Edwards vs. Brady
Blachowicz vs. Ulberg
Nelson vs. Holland
McCann vs. Thainara
Vucenic vs. Duncan
Wood vs. Charriere
The Prelims