Midnight Mania! Dana White: Holloway Not Fighting Anytime Soon

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When it comes to the situation with Max Holloway, Dana White knows just as much as the rest of us- that is, not much. Via MMAFighting…

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

When it comes to the situation with Max Holloway, Dana White knows just as much as the rest of us- that is, not much. Via MMAFighting.com:

“It’s a weird situation,” White said at a press conference for UFC 226 on Thursday. “I was talking to Jeff Novitzky in the back and there’s a couple of different — some people think it’s concussion-related and some people think it’s weight cut-related, so they haven’t really got down to the bottom of what it is. But according to him he feels fine but obviously he’s not fine. So we’re going to continue to try to figure out what’s wrong with Max Holloway.”

“In the meantime, there’s no way that this guy is going to fight anytime soon.”

It’s a sad day for the MMA community and a concerning development in the career of Max Holloway. Known for his inhuman toughness and durability, which has seen him take the best shots from the likes of Jose Aldo, Conor McGregor and Jeremy Stephens, among others, Holloway has now had three fights cancelled this year for various reasons.

White said Jeremy Stephens had started cutting weight hoping Ortega would take a short-notice fight with him, but that didn’t work out.

“Literally, Jeremy Stephens will not stop blowing me up, he wants this fight so bad, he said he’ll take it on short notice,” White said. “He’s cutting weight already with the hopes that Ortega will accept the fight. Ortega has turned down the fight, so I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.”

It seems that the UFC, especially on International Fight week, has some dark hex looming overhead, but Dana has come to accept there is nothing they can do to eliminate injuries.

“It’s impossible,” White said. “It’s impossible to ensure what happened to Holloway doesn’t happen. Listen, you’re dealing with human beings. People get sick, things happen, it’s unfortunate, but it happens. There’s nothing we can do about it.

“We’ve done everything you could possibly try to do to make these guys healthier, to give them a safer place to train, eat the right foods, we have a restaurant at the PI where they can eat for free and we’ve done everything that we can possibly do to try and limit this.”

If his symptoms ARE weight-cut related, as White suggested, there are certainly things they can do to try to mitigate extreme weight-cutting. If it is concussion-related, there is, unfortunately, no way around being punched in the face in a sport where that is the primary objective. Hopefully Max is able to get the help he needs and return completely healthy- whatever that means in this sport- to the cage.

Insomnia

Insomnia

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Maybe this is why we are cursed.

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I thought Chiesa’s mullet was bad enough…

I’m extremely stoked for Saturday, even with Max Holloway off the card

Business time. #UFC226

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Paul Felder vs. Mike Perry is going to be amazing. I didn’t realize Felder would look bigger than Perry.

That @felderpaul vs. @platinummikeperry staredown @mikebohnmma

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Weight classes

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#justbleed #1997 cred image : @themmamafia

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Truth. This made me very sad- not because the fight was cancelled but because my favorite Hawaiian featherweight champion has suffered neurological damage.

Slips, Rips, KO Clips

Down went Jake Shields

This knockout is sublime

Spinning roundhouse kick for the knockout

Fantastic KO at PFL

Just keep throwing

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Jacob Debets is an excellent writer with a solid grasp on the issues facing the Ultimate Fighting Championship and their fighters. Here, he takes a look what it means to be a company man in the new era, by looking at Donald Cerrone’s career.

Podcasts and Video

What three fights should you be most excited about on UFC 226? Follow MMA Mania on Youtube

Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier go way back

If you haven’t seen this documentary yet, you should.

Random Land

Scientists have now demonstrated in experiment that spiders fly sensing and using the electric current of the earth itself, which seems like one of the superpowers of the natural world. I hate spiders, but that is extremely cool.

Stay woke, Maniacs! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality