The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was back in Rotterdam, Netherlands for the second time in promotional history with UFC Fight Night 115: Volkov vs. Struve. It was an entertaining night of action that saw eight of 13 of bouts end inside the distance, and with the scraps now in our rear view, let’s take a look at which of the evening’s competitors we may no longer see going to work inside the Octagon…
ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK Bojan Mihaljovic
Mihaljovic made his UFC debut at UFC on FOX 20 last summer, where he suffered a first round TKO at the hands of Francis Ngannou. For his next Octagon outing, he dropped down to the UFC’s light heavyweight division and took on Joachim Christenson, who defeated Mihaljovic via third round TKO. The promotion opted to give him another crack after a two-fight losing streak when he took on Abdul-Kerim Edilov this past Saturday in Rotterdam. It is more than likely they were just feeding him to the wolves and wanted to see Edilov get an impressive victory in his UFC debut. That is exactly what he did, as he dominated every minute of the bout en route to stopping Mihaljovic with ground and pound in the second round to hand him his third straight TKO defeat. Now having lost all three of his UFC bouts via TKO, I think it is all but certain that the Serbian will be receiving his walking papers from the promotion. I believe it is safe to say we have seen the last of this 37-year-old inside the Octagon.
Andrew Holbrook
Holbrook picked up a controversial split decision win over Ramsey Nijem in his promotional debut and followed that up with a first round knockout defeat at the hands of Joaquim Silva, which marked the first official loss of his professional mixed martial arts career. He returned to take on Jake Matthews in enemy territory in Australia as a heavy underdog and defeated the hometown favorite via split decision following three competitive rounds of action. In an effort to make it two in a row for himself inside the Octagon, Holbrook took on the undefeated Gregor Gillespie four months ago and was again knocked out early in the opening round of action. He looked to make a quick return to action and hopefully the win column this past weekend, but unfortunately for him, things did not go his way, as he again suffered another knockout inside first round. Now on a two-fight losing streak and having been knocked out in the first round of all three of his losses, I think there is a good chance that the UFC opts to part ways with Holbrook. I would not be surprised to see him back after an extended absence, as he needs to take time off following back-to-back knockouts within four months. I would say that it is 70/30 that we have seen the last of Holbrook inside the Octagon.
