Kevin Holland Announces June 18 Battle With Tim Means in Texas

Y’all watch me choke my chicken in Austin, TX on June 18th!!!!!! 🍗 🐔 🦢

Ohh and I cashed out on that Cowboy Oliveira bounty…. 50G’s baby #dirtybird #austintx #2022 #fightnight #webackoutside #onlyfanshaditfirst pic.twitter.com/1jBfmkWh10

— Kevin Holland (@Trailblaze2top) April 29, 2022

Leave it to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Kevin Holland to turn a standard fight announcement into a big drama show.

Holland (22-7, 1 NC) released a video on Friday that gave out the date and location of his next fight, as well as his opponent. Fighting with someone dressed up as Big Bird wearing roller skates, Holland declared that he would be taking on Tim Means (32-12-1, 1 NC) on the unnamed UFC Fight Night card on June 18. The two will tangle in the welterweight division at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, signaling his return to his adopted state of Texas for the first time since 2018. It will be the first appearance for Holland in the Lone Star State since joining the roster later that year.

“Trailblazer” Holland dropped back down to the welterweight division after a long stretch at 185 pounds, where he competed 13 times inside the Octagon at that weight category. A rough patch of two defeats and a no contest due to an accidental clash of heads prompted a move back to welterweight, and he emerged victorious in that outing by knocking Alex Oliveira out with elbows in March. Before his shift down in weight, Holland had a stretch of five straight wins over the likes of Ronaldo Souza and Joaquin Buckley that tied the UFC record for the most victories in a calendar year.

Like Holland, Means is an entertainer, with the lion’s share of his career wins – a clean 75% -- inside the distance. At 38 years of age, “The Dirty Bird” has won three fights in a row, for his longest win streak since he rattled off four straight in 2014 and 2015. In this period, he has beaten Laureano Staropoli, Mike Perry and Nicolas Dalby, all on the scorecards, and after the first two missed weight by several pounds each.

There is currently no headliner for the UFC Fight Night event on June 18, one that will be held inside the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. Beyond Holland vs. Means, other fights likely to serve on the main card include a bantamweight clash between Cody Stamann and Eddie Wineland, a lightweight battle pitting Damir Ismagulov against Guram Kutateladze, and a middleweight tilt as Julian Marquez faces off against Gregory Rodrigues.