MMA

Max Holloway Out Of UFC 226 Title Fight With Concussion-Like Symptoms

Sean Ross SappJuly 5, 2018, 3:18 am

It wouldn’t be a huge UFC week without having a major fight fall out, and Wednesday night saw that for UFC 226 as Featherweight Champion Max Holloway has withdrawn from his planned title fight with Brian Ortega.

ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported Wednesday night that Holloway was forced out of the fight. Based on a statement from Holloway’s team, he was experiencing concussion-like symptoms and tried to make the fight happen, against his team’s wishes.

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

As for Brian Ortega’s status, he just found out the news, I’m told. It’s unclear at this time if he will remain on the card.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 5, 2018

The last four International Fight Week events have had changes force fights from the card, drug test failures, and more. Holloway was scheduled to replace Tony Ferguson against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223, but a bad weight cut eliminated him from the bout. After never pulling out of a UFC fight before 2018, Max Holloway has been forced out of three this year.

Fightful will have full, live coverage of UFC 226 this Saturday night, as well as a post-show podcast wrap up.