Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is injured and out of his upcoming UFC Fight Night matchup against Yair Rodriguez.
ESPN was the first to report that Holloway is injured and out of the fight with Rodriguez. According to the report, the UFC is hoping to reschedule the bout for a future fight card instead of finding someone to fill in on short notice against Rodriguez. With the Holloway vs. Rodriguez fight now off of the UFC’s July 17 card, the promotion will surely be looking to find a replacement headliner on one month’s notice.
Holloway (22-6) is coming off of arguably the best win of his UFC career to date, a five-round beating over Calvin Kattar earlier this year that saw “Blessed” break records for most significant strikes landed in an MMA fight. The Hawaii native is hoping that he can get past Rodriguez and earn a title shot against the winner of UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega, but he will have to wait a little while longer.
Rodriguez (13-2, 1 NC) has not fought since October 2019 when he won a unanimous decision over Jeremy Stephens. He is currently riding a three-fight unbeaten streak since suffering his lone career defeat to Frankie Edgar in 2017. Since then, Rodriguez has been on a roll, and he was hoping a win over Holloway would earn him a UFC title shot.
Taking a look at the July 17 UFC Fight Night card right now, there doesn’t seem to be an immediate replacement fight already booked for the event. Though Miesha Tate vs. Marion Reneau and Islam Makhachev vs. Thiago Moises are both solid fights, it’s unknown if the UFC would want either of those fights as a five-round headliner. It will be interesting to see what the UFC matchmakers do to solve this main event dilemma on short notice.