Kevin Holland returned to the middleweight division for the first time since 2021, and nearly took home the arm of his opponent Michal Oleksiejczuk.

Holland (26-11 MMA, 13-8 UFC) overcame an early scare, but ultimately finished Oleksiejczuk (19-8 MMA, 7-6 UFC) at 1:34 in Round 1 of their middleweight bout on the UFC 302 main card at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Strikes began flying at a high clip after the pair touched gloves.

As Holland circled on the outside, Oleksiejczuk landed a hard left hand that sent him to the canvas. Oleksiejczuk immediately rushed in for follow up punches, but Holland was still very aware of the situation.

As Oleksiejczuk attempted to land ground and pound to finish the fight, Holland slapped on an armbar, and it was deep. Holland rolled Oleksiejczuk over, and really began cranking on the armbar. In fact, he appeared to hesitate to want to snap the limb. However, Oleksiejczuk didn’t want to tap, so Holland cranked harder, and sure enough, the arm appeared to crack, prompting referee Herb Dean to step in and stop the fight.

Holland returned to the middleweight division for the first time since 2021 in a fight against Kyle Daukaus that was ruled a no contest due to an accidental headbutt. He improves to 9-4 at middleweight, while 4-4 at welterweight.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 302 results include:

• Kevin Holland def. Michal Oleksiejczuk via technical submission (armbar) – Round 1, 1:34

• Niko Price def. Alex Morono via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

• Randy Brown def. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

• Roman Kopylov def. Cesar Almeida via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)

• Jailton Almeida def. Alexandr Romanov via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:27

• Grant Dawson def. Joe Solecki via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

• Jake Matthews def. Phil Rowe via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

• Bassil Hafez def. Mickey Gall via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

• Ailin Perez def. Joselyne Edwards via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

• Andre Lima def. Mitch Raposo via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 302.

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie