UFC 226 card gets reshuffled following Holloway-Ortega cancellation

With the much-anticipated Max Holloway-Brian Ortega featherweight title clash now in moth balls due to Holloway’s sudden health issues, Saturday’s UFC 226 card got an adjustment Thursday assuming no other fights fall through due to weight cut issues.

Replacing Holloway-Ortega on the PPV portion of the show will be a potentially fun lightweight tilt between Paul Felder and Mike Perry, a fight bumped up from FS1.

Franics Ngannou vs. Derrick Lewis is now the co-main event. The card is headlined by heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic vs. light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier with Michael Chiesa vs. Anthony Pettis and Khalil Rountree vs. Gokhan Saki also on the main card.

In related news, ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported that the promotion was trying to put together Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens for the interim featherweight title but due to a recent stem cell injection that Edgar got in his shoulder, he couldn’t be ready but was down to fight on three days notice. 

By all indications, Ortega is going to wait for the Holloway fight. There were rumors that the fight could be done on the promotion’s early August PPV in Los Angeles, but that would appear unlikely until Holloway gets a clean bill of health.