It’s been a trying year for UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway. Heading into his hopeful return at this weekend’s (Sat., December 8, 2018) UFC 231, Holloway refuses to answer questions about his health.
“Blessed” was arguably the hottest fighter in mixed martial arts (MMA) throughout 2017. He finished legendary former featherweight champion Jose Aldo twice and was on top of the fight game. Huge things were on the horizon for the Hawaiian in 2018, or so it seemed. Then came a long and concerning string of health-related issues that put his future in question.
First, Holloway was forced out of his scheduled title defense against Frankie Edgar at March’s UFC 222 due to a leg injury. Holloway bounced back rather from quickly from that, however, and even offered to fill in at UFC 223 against Khabib Nurmagomedov the next month when Tony Ferguson was seriously injured. But the short-notice bout meant a huge weight cut for Holloway. He was declared medically unfit to compete.
Finally, and perhaps most concerningly, Holloway was scheduled to meet Brian Ortega in the co-main event of July’s UFC 226. “T-City” had just knocked out Edgar on short notice himself. Holloway was pulled from the fight when he exhibited strange ‘concussion-like’ symptoms while conducting interviews for the fight. So Holloway withdrew and underwent a long series of medical tests to find out what went wrong.
He and his team still aren’t completely sure as of now. But one thing is certain for him – he isn’t answering any more questions about his health for now. Appearing on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” today, Holloway said he would not answer health-related queries due to a pending investigation. Word of the investigation broke last week:
Max Holloway tells @arielhelwani there's a private investigation going on right now to find out what happened ahead of UFC 226 last July. This was first reported by @bokamotoESPN last week. #HelwaniShow
— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) December 3, 2018
Investigation Into What?
That’s a strange set of circumstances, to say the least. Holloway is absolutely within his rights to deny any health-related questions with an investigation pending. “Blessed” is probably – and understandably – sick of answering such questions, especially if he doesn’t know what really happened to him.
But after a full battery of medical tests produced no concrete results, it’s a much bigger issue that a private investigation is actually required to find out what affected him. It’s downright concerning. As this point, it seems he’s been cleared far enough to enter the full pre-fight promotional stretch for his meeting with Ortega. That suggests the issues weren’t lasting and he is at least close to fully recovered from the long streak of bad luck affecting him throughout the year.
Those are issues he won’t discuss for now. The bigger issue is hoping that no foul play was involved when he appeared lackadaisical and out of it heading into UFC 226. It’s tough to imagine what that would even entail.
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