News broke yesterday that Max Holloway would not be able to defend his UFC Featherweight Championship at UFC 226 this weekend vs Brian Ortega.The reason why Blessed has pulled out of the title fight this Saturday is because he has been struggling with concussion-like symptoms which caused him to be admitted to a local hospital on Monday night.Holloway felt better on Tuesday and argued with his team to stay in the fight. However, his condition worsened on Wednesday and he was eventually pulled from the card.Naturally, you would expect Ortega to be annoyed by Holloway pulling out of the fight since he has been preparing for months for this title fight.Yet, in his reaction on Twitter, the number one contender for the UFC Featherweight Championship didn't seem too bothered by it.He said: "It is what it is. We’ll run this shit later."

Aftermath

According to MMA Fighting, Ortega’s coach, Rener Gracie, has said that the UFC has not contacted Ortega’s team about a possible replacement opponent.

However, he also said that, if it isn’t a title fight, T-City likely won't be interested.

Holloway’s manager, Brian Butler-Au, said the following about his client's condition in a statement to MMA Fighting: 

"Max’s team and UFC staff noticed Max was not normal since late last week. This became obvious to many watching his interviews and public appearances the past few days.

"He was showing concussion like symptoms before he even started his weight cut and was rushed to the ER on Monday where they admitted him over night. Initial scans seemed okay and he was released Tuesday afternoon but symptoms still continued.

"Max fought with his team to continue with the fight. He showed some improvement over the next day but was still showing obvious symptoms. After open workouts he crashed and was very hard to wake up, when he did he had flashing vision and slurred speech."

This is the third time this year Holloway was pulled from a fight in the leadup to a major card.

Blessed withdrew from a UFC 222 defense vs Frankie Edgar due to a leg injury, as well as a short-notice fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223.