According to Carlos Contreras Legaspi of ESPN Deportes Max Holloway is out of his July 17 match-up with Yair Rodriguez.
That outlet states that the reason for Holloway’s withdrawal from the match-up is an ‘undisclosed injury’. The report states that the UFC is expected to announce a new main event for the July 17 card in the coming days.
It is not known if Rodriguez will remain on this card versus a new opponent or if he will wait to face Holloway once the Hawaiian is cleared to compete.
Holloway last fought this January, where he took a lopsided unanimous decision win over Calvin Kattar. That win came after two straight losses to Alex Volkanovski. The first, at UFC 245 in December 2019, cost Holloway his UFC featherweight title.
Holloway had held the 145 lb championship since beating Jose Aldo by TKO in 2017. He defended that title versus Aldo (again by TKO), Brian Ortega (TKO) and Frankie Edgar (unanimous decision).
During his title reign Holloway unsuccessfully challenged Dustin Poirier for the interim UFC lightweight title. Holloway has been with the UFC since 2012, where he debuted versus Poirier in only his fifth ever fight.
Rodriguez hasn’t appeared in the Octagon since a unanimous decision win over Jeremy Stephens at UFC on ESPN: Reyes vs. Weidman in October 2019. That fight was a rematch of a fight that happened a month earlier, which ended in a no contest due to an accidental eye poke to Stephens.
Prior to that fight Rodriguez pulled off a walk-off elbow KO over Chan Sung Jung in a 2018 Fight of the Year candidate. That win followed Rodriguez’s first UFC loss, a TKO to Frankie Edgar at UFC 211. Leading up to that fight Rodriguez had impressed with six straight wins to start his UFC career, including wins over Dan Hooker, Alex Caceres and B.J. Penn.
Rodriguez was scheduled to return to action last August, with a fight versus Zabit Magomedsharipov. However, the Mexican fighter was forced to withdraw with an ankle injury.
Rodriguez then served a six month suspension for failing to notify USADA of his whereabouts and being unavailable for drug testing.
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