Kevin Holland gets unranked opponent in 4th UFC fight of 2025

If you thought Kevin Holland would be getting a ranked opponent after taking out Vicente Luque earlier this month, think again.

Holland met Luque, a staple of the welterweight top-15, at UFC 316. He won the fight with a second-round anaconda choke—a finish so slick it earned him a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus.

It was Holland’s second win in a row, after defeating Gunnar Nelson at in London this past March. That brings him to 2-0 in his latest stint as a welterweight, after some tough losses up at middleweight. Now ranked No. 14 in the division, it would be affair to assume he’d get a ranked opponent. Especially after he called for fights with Carlos Prates and Colby Covington.

Apparently, the UFC has other plans.

On Wednesday afternoon, MMA Fighting confirmed rumors that Holland will take on Daniel Rodriguez at UFC 318.

Kevin Holland meets Daniel Rodriguez at UFC 318

UFC 318 goes down on July 19 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is not yet clear whether Holland and Rodriguez will meet on the main card or undercard. One way or the other, it’s an exciting fight.

While Rodriguez is not currently ranked, he briefly cracked the top-15 in the past, and has been hovering just outside the rankings for years. He’s also on a two-fight streak in the welterweight division right now. In his last fight, he scored an impressive knockout over fellow veteran Santiago Ponzinibbio. That was preceded by a split decision win over Alex Morono.

He and Holland were actually scheduled to meet at UFC 279 in 2022, but the fight fell apart at the last minute, when multiple fighters got new opponents thanks to a disastrous scale fail from Khamzat Chimaev.

UFC 318 will be headlined by a lightweight scrap between Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway. It will be their third meeting, and the final fight of Poirier’s legendary career.