An undisclosed injury has forced middleweight contender [autotag]Darren Till[/autotag] out of his Dec. 5 main event fight against [autotag]Jack Hermansson[/autotag], but a new opponent has already been found.
Hermansson will instead fight fast-rising [autotag]Kevin Holland[/autotag] on the yet-to-be-named card in Las Vegas. MMA Junkie confirmed both ends of the change with sources with knowledge of the situation after an initial ESPN report Friday.
The 28-year-old Holland (20-5 MMA, 7-2 UFC) is coming off a first-round TKO victory over Charlie Ontiveros last Saturday at UFC on ESPN+ 39. He earned a “Performance of the Night” bonus for his effort, his second in his past three fights. He’s won four fights in a row and seven of his past eight.
All four of Holland’s wins have come this year. With a victory, he would join Neil Magny and Roger Huerta as the only fighters in modern UFC history to go 5-0 in a calendar year.
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Hermansson (21-5 MMA, 8-3 MMA), meanwhile, looks the continue his rebuild back toward the top of the pack at 185 pounds. After losing to Jared Cannonier in a pivotal matchup in September 2019, Hermansson needed just 1:18 to submit Kelvin Gastelum in August. That was his fifth victory in his past six fights.
No word yet on how long Till, whose last fight was a unanimous decision loss in a five-round war with former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker on July 26, will be out.
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