
It Was Too Good to be True… UFC 226 Has Suffered its First Massive Casualty…
Why can’t we have nice things? The sensational news has broken that Max Holloway has been hospitalized ahead of his upcoming fight this weekend. ‘Blessed’ was due to defend his featherweight title against California’s Brian Ortega in one of the most highly-anticipated clashes of recent times.
Holloway is one of the UFC’s most exciting champions. After Conor McGregor, he’s the only other man to beat Jose Aldo – the difference being, he’s done it twice. Currently riding a 12-fight unbeaten run, he hasn’t lost since fighting the ‘Notorious’ in Boston way back in 2013.
Unfortunately, he’s been forced to withdraw after suffering concussion-like symptoms. Time was given to him to recover, however, he was not able to show sufficient signs that he had healed. The decision was made by his team and medical professionals to pull him from the fight for his own safety.

Safety First
Of course, many fans would have jumped to conclusions after he was forced to stop cutting weight in the run-up to UFC 223 when he was due to fight Khabib Nurmagamedov as an emergency replacement. However, this is not the case, as his team explained:
“Max’s team and UFC staff noticed Max was not normal since late last week,” manager Brian Butler-Au wrote in a statement provided to MMA Junkie. “This became obvious to many watching his interviews and public appearances the past few days.”
“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.”

What Next?
This is definitely a blow for the UFC. Holloway is one of their most marketable current champions and the pay-per-view buys will definitely suffer as a result. The fight against Ortega had been heavily promoted. It’s not clear what exactly will happen to Ortega now that ‘Blessed’ has been pulled from the card.
Don’t be surprised if another interim title is put on the table. If it is a concussion, there’s a high chance that there could be a pretty quick turnaround on this one. Obviously, safety first, but no doubt Holloway will want to get back in the cage as soon as possible. It’s definitely a concerning situation.
Stacked Card
It still is a ludicrously stacked card. In the main event, Stipe Miocic defends his heavyweight title against his challenger, the light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. Superfight is a word thrown about loosely these days, but this is a real one. Let’s hope it lives up to expectations.
You also Francis Ngannou taking on the ‘Black Beast’ Derrick Lewis. This is not going to go 3 rounds. The UFC might actually end up moving this to co-main event status. There’s probably going to be an earthquake in Nevada after these two giants meet, so hold on to your seats!