The best and worst of UFC 226

#2 Worst: What’s the deal with Holloway?

The health of Max Holloway is a worrying question mark

A week ago UFC 226 looked like possibly the most loaded show of 2018, and a lot of that was to do with its co-main event.

A Featherweight title match between champion Max Holloway and challenger Brian Ortega sounded absolutely mouthwatering – a meeting between two of the UFC’s most entertaining and most aggressive fighters, with a concrete pick to win seemingly impossible to make.

That all changed on Wednesday when Holloway was forced off the card with “concussion-like symptoms”.

This was the third time Holloway’s been forced out a fight in 2018, and while the first two withdrawals – a knee injury and an issue with a weight cut on late notice – were understandable, this one sounds far more worrying.

UFC President Dana White has already said he’s got no idea how long the champ will be out and the most recent reports have even suggested nobody’s actually sure what’s wrong with the Hawaiian.

Considering his style has always been to take three punches to give a harder one back, it could prove to be something extremely concerning indeed.

Hopefully we’ll see the Holloway/Ortega fight at some point in 2018 but for now I’m just hoping Holloway can get healthy again soon. Lesnar shenanigans aside, the loss of Holloway was the worst part about this show by far.