Max Holloway medically cleared, offered backup role at UFC 273

By Josh Evanoff - February 4, 2022

Max Holloway has the possibility to find himself in a strange position come April.

The Hawaiian was previously booked in a trilogy bout against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 272. The fight had a lot of fan demand behind it, which is why it was made despite Holloway being down 2-0 in the series against ‘The Great’.

However, one day after the announcement, Holloway had to pull out of the fight. An official diagnosis wasn’t given to the public, but ‘Blessed’ had apparently reaggravated a previous injury. No timeline was given for Holloway’s injury, and the UFC decided to move on from the trilogy bout.

As a result, Volkanovski was given a new opponent and a new fight date. The featherweight title bout was moved to UFC 273, and Chan Sung Jung stepped up as the replacement for Holloway.

Now, less than a month after Volkanovski vs. Jung became official, Holloway is ready to go.

Per sources, Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) has been medically cleared from the injury that prevented him from fighting Alexander Volkanovski in March … he will resume training and has offered to weigh-in as a backup to Volk vs. KZ on April 9. https://t.co/fNeAI6rCnI

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) February 4, 2022

ESPN MMA’s Brett Okamoto first broke the news that Max Holloway has been cleared to train. To top it off, ‘Blessed’ has offered to be a backup for the featherweight title fight on April 9th.

It remains to be seen if the UFC will actually take up Holloway’s offer to be a replacement for UFC 273. In the past, there have been backup fighters for UFC title bouts, but as of now, no fighter has had to step up on weigh-in day.

Most of the time, fighters take the opportunity to be a replacement to get an easy paycheck for cutting weight. Given the fact that no fighter has ever to actually fight as a backup, it makes sense.

However, if anything were to actually happen to Chan Sung Jung, fans could be getting their highly-anticipated trilogy bout. Just not the way they originally expected.