Michał Oleksiejczuk will look to get the victory against Kevin Holland who is making a return to the middleweight division at UFC 302.
Michał Oleksiejczuk Amateur Career
Oleksiejczuk started off with a vast amount of amateur experience being able to get the victory against Szymon Gamla. This victory was due to a unanimous decision. This was before he was able to back this victory up with a first-round armbar against Patruk Graboqski. This was followed up with back-to-back KO/TKO against Kacper Szalast and Michał Trzmielak.
Following these victories, Michał was able to keep the victories coming securing a first-round guillotine choke against Michał Kowalski. Back-to-back victories would then follow this up against Jakyb Sklarczyk before defeating Sebastian Dobijański in the first round to improve to 9-0. However, Michał would go on to suffer his first defeat when he came up against Adrian Pobnke. Adrian was able to get the victory due to a unanimous decision.
Michał would then go and get himself back into the win column when he made his return against Aleksander Mikołajczak. Oleksiejczuk would be able to get a first-round stoppage due to knees and punches to get himself back to winning way. Robert Chmielarz would then be next to try and stop Michał however, just like the other fighters he would end up losing in the first round. Michał was able to get this stoppage due to punches before going on and defeating Rafał Kijańczuk by the same method in the first round once again.
Michał Oleksiejczuk would then face off against Paweł Michalak where he was able to get the knockout after only 6 seconds before going on and defeating Kamil Lacheta in the first round. This victory against Kamil Lachete would turn out to be his last as an amature as he would go on to turn pro.
Michał Oleksiejczuk Journey to UFC
Michał Oleksiejczuk was able to get off to the best possible start being able to secure the victory in his first two professional fights. These victories came against Rajmund Flejmer and Mateusz Gola. Both of these victories were due to decision but got Michał Oleksiejczuk off to the best possible start to his professional career. However, Jan Kwiatoń would hand Michał his first professional defeat.
Michał would be able to come back stronger being able to get a bounce-back victory against Norbert Piskrorski in the first round. Oleksiejczuk would be able to get this victory due to a leg injury. However, he would suffer another defeat in the next fight against Marcin Wójcik. This is due to Marcin being able to get the stoppage victory against Michał in the first round. However, Michał would bounce back stronger being able to defeat Seweryn Kirschiebel. Oleksiejczuk got the victory by 2nd round stoppage to start a winning streak.
Michał would then go on to stop Tomasz Janiszewski in the first round. Michał then knocked out Andrejs Zozula in the first round. However, the winning streak would not end there as he was able to get the 2nd round stoppages over Michal Dobiaš due to a kick to the body and Łukasz Borowski due to a rear naked choke.
Michał Oleksiejczuk would then go on to collect a unanimous decision victory over Wojciech Janusz. This was before defeating Łukasz Klinger due to punches in the first round. After back-to-back first-round stoppages due to punches against Charles Andrade and Riccardo Nosiglia, he would end up being signed with the UFC.
UFC Career
Oleksiejczuk would start his UFC journey with a unanimous decision victory against Khalil Rountree Jr. However, this would get overturned to being a no-contest due to Michał testing positive for a banned substance. This would result in Michał getting suspended for one year. However, Michał would be able to come back stronger getting a first-round stoppage against Gian Villante. Oleksiejczuk would be able to follow this up with another first-round stoppage over Gadzhimurad.
However, this winning streak wouldn’t last long as Ovince St. Preux would be able to finish Oleksiejczuk in the 2nd round due to a submission. This was before he followed it up with another defeat this time to Jummy Crute in the first round. However, he would be able to bounce back with a split-decision victory against Modestas Bukauskas. This was followed up with a first-round knockout over Shamil Gamzatov. However, would face another setback when he was defeated by Dustin Jacoby due to a decision.
Oleksiejczuk doesn’t let defeats rack up as he would end up defeating Sam Alvey. This was in the first round before getting another first-round stoppage against Cody Brundage. However, when Oleksiejczuk came up against up-and-coming prospect Caio Borralho. Oleksiejczuk would face another setback as Caio would submit him in the 2nd round. But, Michał would be able to bounce back with a first-round stoppage over Chidi Njokuani. This was before losing last time out against Michel Pereira due to a first-round rear naked choke.
Match Up
Michał Oleksiejczuk’s first difficulty in this match-up will be trying to get into range to be able to do damage to. Oleksiejczuk is working with a 7-inch reach disadvantage so will have to try and work his way in. Michał has been able to land on average 5 significant strikes per minute during his UFC career. Oleksiejczuk has been able to land 51 percent of his strikes on his opponent. Michał is also very dangerous on the feet. This is due to him being able to land an average of 1 knockdown throughout his UFC Journey.
He will be coming against Kevin Holland who is also able to land quite a few strikes as he lands 4.24 strikes per minute. With Holland having the reach advantage he will be able to keep this pace by keeping Michał at a distance. Michał will have to use his defence which currently sits at 61% to dodge the strikes. He will use this to get into range to be able to unleash the damage he holds.
In terms of grappling Michał averages 0.75 takedowns being able to land at a 44% accuracy. While he may not go for takedowns often he has been able to show he has been successful. He may have to test Holland’s takedown defence. This currently sits at 55% which while it is still high it is not impossible to see Michał from getting a takedown. On the other hand, Holland averages 0.85 takedowns with Michał being able to defend 48 per cent of takedowns.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
