UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is out of Saturday’s UFC 226 co-main event after showing concussion-like symptoms.
Max Holloway is out of Saturday’s co-main event fight against Brian Ortega at UFC 226. This is according to a report from ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
The report includes a statement from Max Holloway’s team, detailing why Holloway had to pull out of the title fight. (via MMAJunkie)
Max’s team and UFC staff noticed Max was not normal since late last week. This became obvious to many watching his interviews and public appearances the past few days.
He was showing concussion like symptoms before he even started his weight cut and was rushed to the ER on Monday where they admitted him over night. Initial scans seemed okay and he was released Tuesday afternoon but symptoms still continued.
Max fought with his team to continue with the fight. He showed some improvement over the next day but was still showing obvious symptoms. After open workouts he crashed and was very hard to wake up, when he did he had flashing vision and slurred speech.
He is now back in the ER for further tests.
Helwani has since tweeted that Brian Ortega has been made aware of the cancellation. No official report from the UFC on the injury has been released.
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
Holloway was pulled from a fight earlier this year, when he tried to take on lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov on short notice at UFC 223. He was pulled from the card after doctors stopped his weight cut due to health concerns.
The 26-year-old Holloway last fought on December 2nd, 2017, successfully defending his championship at UFC 218 against Jose Aldo.
UFC 226 is currently headlined by a Heavyweight title fight between UFC heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic and UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier.