The highly anticipated fight card of UFC 223 has experienced quite a few changes over the past few days. Primarily, the main event for the night of fights has gone through a serious overhaul. Now the reasoning behind Max Holloway’s inability to compete on the card has been revealed.
UFC 223 goes down this Saturday, April 7, inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The highly anticipated live pay-per-view event was initially set to see Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov fight for the undisputed lightweight title.
However, Ferguson was pulled from the fight on just six days notice after suffering an injury. UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway stepped up to accept a spot as Nurmagomedov’s replacement opponent shortly after.
With the fight night just a day away, Max Holloway has been pulled from the event’s headliner. The fighter was deemed unfit to finish his weight cut, leaving Holloway incapable of weighing in for the match up.
It has since been reported that the New York State Athletic Commission did not have medical physicians declare Holloway incapable of finishing his weight cut. Rather, the commission themselves ruled Holloway “looked” unfit to finish his weight cut while watching the fighter.
Khabib Nurmagomedov will now face Al Iaquinta in the night’s main event.
