The UFC’s plans for UFC 272 lasted about two days.
Former featherweight champion Max Holloway has pulled out of his title rematch against current champ Alexander Volkanovski after aggravating a prior injury Thursday, according to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
Dana White had announced the Volkanovski-Holloway fight on Tuesday, setting up a trilogy that had previously seen a unanimous decision win and split decision win for Volkanovski, currently the promotion’s No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter. Since his second loss, Holloway has defeated Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez to stay on top of the contenders.
A rematch between current bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and former champ Petr Yan now sits as the lone title fight on the UFC 272 card, at least for now.
Alexander Volkanovski wants Chan Sung Jung as fill-in opponent
Soon after news broke of Holloway’s injury, there was no shortage of UFC featherweights shooting their shot for a chance to fight Volkanovski.
The No. 3, 4, 6, 8 and 11 fighters in UFC’s featherweight rankings all indicated they were interested in stepping in for Holloway, as did former champion Henry Cejudo, who has been retired since May 2020.
With those options all available, Volkanovski appeared to make his choice: No. 4 ranked Chan Sung Jung. According to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, both fighters have verbally agreed to a fight, but need to fill out the paperwork.
