It wouldn't be a huge UFC week without having a major fight fall out, and Wednesday night saw that for UFC 226 as Featherweight Champion Max Holloway has withdrawn from his planned title fight with Brian Ortega.
ESPN's Ariel Helwani reported Wednesday night that Holloway was forced out of the fight. Based on a statement from Holloway's team, he was experiencing concussion-like symptoms and tried to make the fight happen, against his team's wishes.
The last four International Fight Week events have had changes force fights from the card, drug test failures, and more. Holloway was scheduled to replace Tony Ferguson against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223, but a bad weight cut eliminated him from the bout. After never pulling out of a UFC fight before 2018, Max Holloway has been forced out of three this year.
Fightful will have full, live coverage of UFC 226 this Saturday night, as well as a post-show podcast wrap up.