Max Holloway forced to withdraw from UFC 272 trilogy fight with Alex Volkanovski

UFC featherweight Max Holloway has been forced to pull out of his UFC 272 trilogy showdown with Alexander Volkanovski.

ESPN is reporting that Holloway, who accepted the fight just a matter of days ago, aggravated an old injury on Thursday and will therefore be unable to compete on the March 5 card in Las Vegas. As of this writing, no official statement has been made by the UFC regarding a potential replacement or whether the fight will be rescheduled for a later date.

“Blessed” first fought Volkanovski back at UFC 245 in December 2019 and on that night, “The Great” defeated the then-champion to capture the belt. Seven months later, lightning struck twice as the Australian successfully defended the championship in a result that was deemed by many to be more controversial than the inaugural bout.

Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) has been forced to withdraw from Alex Volkanovski (@alexvolkanovski) trilogy after re-aggravating a previous injury. Happened just days after he accepted. More details here. https://t.co/V0sa9kSUzk

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) January 7, 2022

Holloway had to beat Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez in two scintillating performances just to get back to Volkanovski and now, fans are left to wonder when they’re going to see the highly-anticipated third meeting between these two all-time featherweight studs.

The de-facto main event would currently be Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan for the UFC bantamweight title, although as previously noted, there’s been nothing confirmed by the promotion.

Will we see Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway 3 be rebooked, or will the champion get a new opponent? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments, BJPENN Nation!