Say what you will about the constant flow of main event killing injuries that plagues the UFC, but at least the promotion does a decent job of pulling interesting replacement fights out of their ass. Stepping in for an injured Tony Ferguson to face Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223 is featherweight champion Max Holloway, and while the oddsmakers aren’t giving him much of a chance, fans are intrigued at how the fight will go down.
Unfortunately for Holloway, Nurmagomedov isn’t the only difficult opponent he’ll have to face. The other is the weigh-in scale, which may surprise you considering Max is a 145 pound fighter competing at 155 pounds on April 7th. But with just six days notice to get ready, a cut down to 155 pounds is still going to be severe for the Hawaiian champ. How severe? Severe enough for his nutritionist George Lockhard to sound nervous about it.
“It was a lot of math, a lot of calculations and a lot of f*cking stress in a short amount of time,” Lockhart revealed in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I was like, ‘f*ck.’ … Anybody that follows us and knows what I do, this is tied for the largest weight that I’ve ever done.”
Battle between King Cobra and Reticulated Python. Both dead when found #UFC223 pic.twitter.com/4wRZ47aWad
— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) April 1, 2018
The cut will be so intense that Holloway won’t train at all to fight Khabib. Instead, all his time will be spent following Lockhart’s program to hit the 155 pound limit for the official NYSAC weigh-in on Friday morning.
A lot is riding on Holloway’s ability to make weight. UFC president Dana White has made a big deal of the fight still being for the undisputed UFC lightweight belt, a belt they’re stripping from Conor McGregor for the occasion. A fight that also results in the nullification of Tony Ferguson’s interim lightweight title for no clear reason. If Holloway shows up and misses weight, it takes an already borderline ridiculous title situation and turns it into a farce.
It would be a familiar farce, as well. Just last month we witnessed late replacement Yoel Romero miss weight for his interim middleweight title fight against Luke Rockhold. That disqualified him from being able to win the belt, but he still won the fight. If the same thing happens with Holloway, does McGregor keep his divisional championship or does it end up vacant? These are the kind of bizarro situations the UFC is finding itself in regularly these days as it continues to use its belts as marketing props to aid in the sales of its pay-per-views.
