Max Holloway out of UFC 222; main event replacement search currently underway

Another UFC main event—another injury.

UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway (19-3) has been pulled from UFC 222 due to a undisclosed injury that is rumored to be of the lower body variety. Holloway was supposed to defend his title against Frankie Edgar (22-5) in the main event of the evening.

This marks the second time that Holloway versus Edgar was scrapped due to injury. Edgar was forced to pull out of their UFC 218 bout due to a facial laceration. Holloway would go on to successfully defend his title against former now former 2-time champ Jose Aldo in front of a sold out Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, who broke the news earlier today, the UFC is looking at other options to headline the card. A heavyweight battle between fan favorites Stefan Struve and Andrei Arkovski is currently slotted as the co-main event.

UFC 222 is scheduled to take place on March 3rd inside of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Tickets are currently on sale via AXS.com.

Editor’s Take: This one stings folks. Holloway versus Edgar is one of those fights that fans have been clamoring for from a match up perspective and it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. As far as replacements go, there are two viable options.

At 13-0, Brian Ortega is a very dangerous fighter for anyone at 145 lbs. He turned down a UFC on FOX main event bout versus Josh Emmett later this month which could turn out to be a blessing with the likelihood of a #1 contenders bout against Edgar taking place a week later becoming very strong as of today.

There’s also Darren Elkins. If you want to talk about styles making fights—Edgar versus Elkins reeks of fight of the year contender on paper. Either of these bouts would likely take the co-main slot with a new title fight being worked on to headline as we speak.