The Octagon returns to Toronto on Saturday night with Max’Blessed’ Holloway defending his featherweight belt against undefeated Brian’T-City Ortega in the UFC 231 headliner in Scotiabank Arena.
At early Friday night, many novels had Ortega (14-0-1 MMA, 6-0-1 UFC) recorded as a -125 favorite with a total of 3.5 rounds (‘beneath’ -125,’over’ -105). Holloway was the brief’chalk’ for many months before Thursday if the 27-year-old Ortega took on the favorite role.
Holloway (19-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) has won 12 consecutive fights since losing a unanimous decision against Conor’The Notorious’ McGregor in UFC Boston on August 17 of 2013. During this incredible run, the 27-year-old Hawaiian has completed nine of 12 foes and collected five fight-night bonuses.
Holloway entered the name image in 2015 by submitting Cub Swanson, beating Charles Oliveira and making decision successes over Cole Miller and Jeremy Stephens. Subsequently in 2016 Holloway knocked off Ricardo Lamas by choice, enticing’The Bully’ into a swing-for-the-fences contest in the last 10 seconds of this scrap (it was barbarous!) .
The victory over Lamas garnered Holloway a shot at the interim 145-pound strap against former lightweight champion Anthony’Showtime’ Pettis. Holloway won the belt by taking out Pettis with a third-round knockout at UFC 206 in Toronto.
Next,’Blessed’ took on the mythical Jose Aldo Jr. to combine the featherweight belts. Holloway went into Aldo’s hometown of Rio and defeat him by way of third-round KO in UFC 212. Then from the rematch in Detroit at UFC 218, Holloway once more won with a third-round KO of Aldo on Dec. 2 of 2017.
Advertisement Coming into 2018, Holloway had the look of one the promotion’s most dominant champions. But he needed to withdraw from his scheduled March 3 title defense against former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar due to an injury. When Tony Ferguson was injured doing press a week before facing Khabib Nurmagomedov for Ferguson’s interim lightweight buckle, Holloway accepted an offer to face Nurmagomedov on just six days of notice.
The battle April 7 didn’t happen, however, because the New York Athletic Commission forced Holloway to quit cutting weight — from health/safety worries — on Friday morning. He was also scheduled to defend his featherweight title against Ortega in UFC 226 on July 7, but he had been pulled in the fight because of”concussion-like symptoms”
Holloway was put on the shelf while doctors ran different tests. The medical people never really figured out what the issue was for the featherweight kingpin, but they cleared him to return to fighting. There was a whole lot of chatter concerning how Holloway’s weight reduction would go, but he stepped on the scale this morning and hit his mark with a half-pound to spare at 144.5 pounds.
Ortega also had an easy weight cut and was one of the first fighters to make his or her number. He is less than 24 hours away from his shot at fulfilling a life-long dream.
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