UFC 223’s Main Event Changes Again With Max Holloway Declared Medically Unfit To Fight

As if the UFC 223 roller coaster couldn’t get any wilder, the card’s main event title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Max Holloway is officially off after Holloway was declared medically unfit to fight. That news came to us via ESPN’s Brett Okamoto as fighters stepped on the scale in Brooklyn Friday morning to make weight. Following Thurdsay’s Conor McGregor incident that resulted in three other fights being taken off the card, you may be asking yourself if UFC 223 is cursed.

Many had thought the fight was good to go when Nurmagomedov managed to weigh in at 154.5 pounds without issue. The Dagestani fighter has had problems making weight in the past, and was hospitalized the day before UFC 209 after his kidneys shut down. But this time it’s featherweight champ Holloway who seems to have botched his cut.

Holloway was a last minute replacement for Tony Ferguson, who tore his knee ligaments a week before UFC 223 in a freak accident. There were a lot of questions surrounding Holloway’s ability to make weight on six days notice, with his nutritionist declaring it one of the most ambitious cuts he’d ever overseen. Unfortunately, it looks like the cut was too much and now we’ve lost our replacement fighter too.

The UFC is scrambling to keep Khabib on the card, which may be difficult given the New York State Athletic Commission’s aversion to last second changes. Word is the promotion is trying to put Anthony Pettis into the main event fight against Nurmagomedov. Pettis lost his original UFC 223 opponent Michael Chiesa due to facial lacerations caused by Conor McGregor’s media event temper tantrum on Thursday.

Now the question is whether Pettis can still make weight. His fight with Michael Chiesa was cancelled on Thursday night, and if he stopped cutting weight once that news arrived there’s little to no chance he’ll be able to hit the 155 pound mark in the next hour.