Max Holloway Reportedly out of UFC Fight Night vs. Yair Rodriguez Because of Injury

Max Holloway reportedly won't be able to compete in the scheduled UFC Fight Night bout against Yair Rodriguez on July 17 due to an undisclosed injury.

According to ESPN's Carlos Contreras Legaspi, it is unknown how long Holloway will be out and whether a replacement opponent will be chosen for Rodriguez.

Edson Barboza and Giga Chikadze have reportedly both expressed interest in fighting Rodriguez should UFC opt for a replacement.

Contreras Legaspi noted that the winner of Holloway vs. Rodriguez likely would have gone on to challenge the winner of the fight between UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega for the title.

The 29-year-old Holloway is a former UFC featherweight champion who boasts a career professional record of 22-6 with 10 wins by way of knockout.

While Holloway has lost three of his past five bouts, a unanimous-decision win over Calvin Kattar in January got him back in the title discussion.

Holloway dropped the UFC featherweight championship to Volkanovski at UFC 245 in December 2019 by unanimous decision and then lost the July 2020 rematch at UFC 251 in a controversial split decision.

Rodriguez, 28, has not fought since October 2019 due to a six-month suspension after failing to submit his whereabouts to USADA for random drug testing.

The Mexico native owns a career record of 13-2 with one no-contest. That includes an 8-1 mark in the UFC, including a unanimous-decision victory over Jeremy Stephens in his most recent fight.

With Holloway vs. Rodriguez off for now, Contreras Legaspi reported that a new main event for the July 17 UFC Fight Night card will be announced "in the upcoming days."