AP Photo/Michael Zarrilli
UFC President Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that Max Holloway and Yair Rodriguez will fight in a featherweight main event on July 17.
The 2 camps have not signed contracts for the fight, nonetheless UFC is terminate to finalizing the bout, per ESPN.
Holloway, a ragged UFC featherweight champion, successfully defended his belt three cases sooner than losing it to Alexander Volkanovski in Dec. 2019. He misplaced a rematch for the belt in July 2020.
The 29-yr-extinct is coming off a unanimous resolution steal over Calvin Kattar in January. He is 22-6 as a expert and for the time being ranks No. 1 on the UFC featherweight contender checklist and No. 9 on the pound-for-pound rankings.
Rodriguez is 13-2 with one no-contest. He hasn’t fought since defeating Jeremy Stephens by skill of unanimous resolution in Oct. 2019.
Rodriguez was as soon as presupposed to fight Zabit Magomedsharipov on Aug. 29, 2020 nonetheless had to descend out because of the an ankle damage.
He was as soon as also suspended by the USADA for six months from Sept. 2020 to March 2021 “for violating the UFC’s anti-doping policy by failing to file his space for testing three cases in the past 12 months,” per Damon Martin of MMA Scuffling with.
The 28-yr-extinct ranks No. 3 on the featherweight contender checklist.
