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An undisclosed injury to Max Holloway has forced the former featherweight champion to withdraw from his July 17 UFC Fight Night main event against Yair Rodriguez.
The heavily anticipated 145-pound fight will be moved to a later date, per ESPN’s report on Thursday. With both fighters ranked in the top three at featherweight by the UFC, the fight was expected to produce the next opponent for the winner of the September title fight between the current coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter,” defending champion Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega.
Although the card’s location and venue had set to be formally announced, it was expected the event would take place in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex facility. A new main event has yet to be named although the card is expected to feature the return from a five-year retirement of former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate against veteran Marion Reneau.
Holloway (22-6) rebounded from a pair of disputed decision defeats to Volkanovski when he pitched a virtuoso shutout of Calvin Kattar in January. The 29-year-old from Hawaii set UFC single-fight records for total strikes landed and attempted, significant strikes landed and attempted, strike differential, distance strikes landed, significant head strikes landed and significant body strikes landed.
Rodriguez (13-2, 1 NC) has lost just once inside the Octagon during a 10-fight run that began with his UFC debut in 2014. The 28-year-old native of Mexico hasn’t fought since a 2019 win over Jeremy Stephens and pulled out of a scheduled return against Zabit Magomedsharipov last August with an ankle injury.