If ever there was a truly cursed fight card, it’s UFC 223.
A week after Tony Ferguson withdrew from his originally scheduled main event battle with Khabib Nurmagomedov, and less than 24 hours after Conor McGregor and his cronies caused the cancellation of a whopping three scheduled fights, featherweight champ Max Holloway has been forced out of his last-minute showdown with Khabib Nurmagomedov, having been deemed medically unfit to fight.
This per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.
BREAKING: Max Holloway has been declared medically unfit to fight. Holloway is out of UFC 223. Per Dana White.
advertisement – continue reading below— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) April 6, 2018
“BREAKING: Max Holloway has been declared medically unfit to fight. Holloway is out of UFC 223. Per Dana White.” – Brett Okamoto on Twitter.
This from a member of Holloway’s team:
advertisement – continue reading below“Max wants to keep pushing and is close but the doctors came up and just stopped it. Doctors stopped it not us. Max was going.”
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 6, 2018
While details are scarce at present, we know Holloway’s removal from the card stem from his weight cut.
His opponent Nurmagomedov made weight this morning. It is unknown whether the undefeated Dagestani star will receive a replacement opponent—Anthony Pettis would seem to be available—but this seems unlikely. The most likely outcome would seem to be Rose Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s co-main event rematch serving as the card’s new main event.
Stay tuned for more updates on Max Holloway’s unfortunate withdrawal from the UFC 223 lineup as they emerge.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/6/2018.