Every day, when I get out of bed in the morning and my big toe hits the floor, there’s one thing that’s guaranteed: bad $#!@ is going to happen.
-Dana White
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani broke the news that Max Holloway is out of UFC 226, due to concussion-like symptoms:
https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1014703749225476096
Management for the undisputed UFC Featherweight Champion released a statement.
Max’s team and UFC staff noticed Max was not normal since late last week. This became obvious to many watching his interviews and public appearances the past few days.
He was showing concussion-like symptoms before he even started his weight cut and was rushed to the ER on Monday where they admitted him overnight. Initial scans seemed okay, and he was released Tuesday afternoon, but symptoms still continued.
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.
He is now back in the ER for further tests.
‘Blessed’ has been cursed this year. He withdrew from UFC 222 with an injury. He had barely recovered from that when he took a fight on short notice for the vacant lightweight belt vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223, but was pulled from it by the New York athletic commision over concerns for his health around weight cutting. And now this; bad things do apparently come in threes.
Holloway did not appear to be his usual high-energy self this week. Former UFC middleweight champion and current fight analyst Michael Bisping noticed it during an interview on UFC Tonight:
Well Max, you say you feel great – and don’t be offended when I say this – but you look like you just got out of bed, said Bisping. Are you tired? What’s going on? How’s the weight cut? Are you drained? You look a little sleepy.
Holloway’s speech was slurred as he replied. Given this, it is far better that Blessed is receiving medical testing, rather than being hit in the head on Saturday night.
The fight was scratched as the UFC wasn’t able to find an opponent for Brian Ortega on such short notice.
