Max Holloway has been pulled from his title fight defense against Brian Ortega at UFC 226. Holloway’s team noticed Holloway was experiencing “concussion-like symptoms” and his fight has been taken off of the card.
Holloway’s management team released a statement to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani:
Breaking: Max Holloway is out of UFC 226. Here is a statement from his management team, exclusive to ESPN. More coming shortly. pic.twitter.com/PO4Zm0DeBC
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 5, 2018
Hollway follows a string of main card fights being scratched including last year’s Cody Garbrandt and Amanda Nunes last year, the Jon Jones debacle in 2015 and Jose Aldo unable to fight Conor McGregor in 2015. July’s International Fight Week is promoted as one of the premier events in the UFC calendar but its main events have fell through for one reason or another. While most of the cards are very strong, this year’s Holloway-Ortega fight was one of those fights many MMA fans wanted to see.
Payout Perspective:
While the Cormier-Miocic fight is still in tact (cross your fingers), the real main event felt like Holloway-Ortega. Although there is a scramble to find a replacement for Holloway on just three days’ notice, its likely that we will miss seeing Ortega altogether.
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