Max Holloway: Brian Ortega ‘Undefeated for a Reason’

Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight king Max Holloway was preparing to defend his title against Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 when he was forced to pull out due to an ankle injury. As it happened, the undefeated and No. 3 ranked Brian Ortega accepted a short notice fight against Edgar and pulled off the upset.

Holloway recently appeared on The MMA Hour and told Ariel Helwani it was the first time he’d ever pulled out of a fight and how he desperately tried to convince the doctors to medically approve him for the bout.

“It was difficult, man. It was a tough pill to swallow, for sure,” Holloway said, per MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti. “I’ve never, ever pulled out of a fight in my life, not even in my amateur days. And for the first time to be that? So much history was on line.

“Things happen though. Things happen for a reason and this injury popped up and it wasn’t my day. It was a tough pill to swallow, man. I was trying to find every single way out of this, trying to talk to the doctors and this and that and figure out a way so we could still go out there and fight, but it wasn’t budging, man. They had the last call, they had the final call -- they called it, and it was definitely a hard one.”

Holloway, like a lot of other fans was surprised just by how clinical Ortega was with the knockout but acknowledged his skills and is relishing the opportunity to fight him for the title.

“Ortega is undefeated for a reason,” he said. “He’s good. He had knockouts on his record. I thought if he finished [Edgar], it was going to be a submission, because he’s pretty [skilled] there too and he’s super good on the ground. So I thought if it was a finish, it’d guaranteed be a submission. But he went out there and did his thing.

“This is a sport. It goes on, it keeps it moving. And I wasn’t mad at all. People keep thinking that Frankie is out of the picture completely. After the Ortega fight, we’ll see what happens. A couple more wins and [Edgar] is back in the discussion again, so I don’t really care. It’s time to move on, it’s time to focus on the next guy up, and that’s Ortega supposedly, so I can’t wait. I’m just ready. I’m ready to fight, man.”

Holloway is still recovering from his injury but is expected to return mid-year, possibly on the UFC 226 card.