UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway was forced to pull out of a title defense against former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 due to an ankle injury.
The champion, who had never pulled out of a fight before in the UFC, admits the whole situation was a tough pill to swallow.
“It was difficult, man. It was a tough pill to swallow, for sure,” Holloway said on The MMA Hour. “I’ve never, ever pulled out of a fight in my life, not even in my amateur days. And for the first time to be that? So much history was on line. Things happen though. Things happen for a reason and this injury popped up and it wasn’t my day. It was a tough pill to swallow, man. I was trying to find every single way out of this, trying to talk to the doctors and this and that and figure out a way so we could still go out there and fight, but it wasn’t budging, man. They had the last call, they had the final call — they called it, and it was definitely a hard one.”
Edgar would go on to fight Brian Ortega at the event and suffered the first knockout loss of his professional MMA career.
Holloway still doesn’t know when he can return to action, but should find out more in about a month or so.
“We’ve got one more doctor’s meeting before everything, in like a month or so, and we’ll see what happens,” Holloway said. “I don’t know when it is exactly, but that’s what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to get cleared. The surgery happens if the injury [rehabilitation] won’t hold up, so we’re waiting. The doctor gave us a certain timeline and we’re just playing it by ear now.”
When Holloway does return to action, it is going to come against Ortega, whom UFC President Dana White named the top contender to the title.
