The UFC and its President Dana White has confirmed who Max Holloway will make his next featherweight title defense against at an upcoming pay-per-view event.

Holloway will defend his title against rising contender Brian Ortega at the upcoming UFC 226 pay-per-view event.

UFC 226 is set to take place on Saturday, July 6, 2018, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.

Holloway was supposed to be the savior of the upcoming UFC 223 pay-per-view event once Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, which was the original main event for the lightweight title, was scrapped after Ferguson pulled out with an injury.

In the co-main event of the UFC 222 event on pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ortega scored a big victory over former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

As a result of this win, it earned him the right to be called the #1 contender in the featherweight division under the Las Vegas-based promotion’s banner.

Holloway recently told Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour about the situation as well as wanting to fight Ortega.

“Dana called me on fight day and told me, ‘It’s alright, kid, we tried’ and ‘thank you for trying everything’ and ‘onto the next one’. So Brian Ortega is up, hopefully we can get on that July card,” Holloway told Ariel Helwani on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.

“I’ve been asking. I see everyone talking about that July card. I’ve got to get back business at 145, but if UFC call again for 155 for that thing with Khabib, that would be fun.”

“Dana said it was the best shot, he said that I have business to handle with Ortega. He didn’t say a date, but hopefully it’s July. I want to fight in July so I can go back to New York and try this one more time,” Holloway said.

“Madison Square Garden, we’ve got to try this one more time, that’s what I want to do. Fans are talking about it, I hear you guys want this fight a lot and they were tweeting me right after I got pulled. A lot of guys were saying, ‘Let’s see that fight [Holloway vs. Ortega] back on UFC 226.”