Frankie Edgar Out Of UFC 218 Main Event, Cris Cyborg - Holly Holm Fight Talks 'Dead,' UFC Norfolk
- Above you can watch the extended preview for UFC 218, but don't get too excited just yet. Unfortunately, Frankie Edgar had to withdraw from his main event fight against UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway due to an undisclosed injury according to Combate. Edgar reportedly doesn't need surgery and will be ready to fight in 12 weeks. Holloway is currently on an 11-fight win streak and is coming off a third-round TKO over longtime featherweight champion Jose Aldo in June. He took to Instagram to react to the news:
Mood! Time to step up. #BlessedERA
Mood! Time to step up. #BlessedERA
A post shared by Max Holloway (@blessedmma) on
There's no information yet about a replacement opponent for Holloway, though a logical option would be Cub Swanson. Swanson has won four straight fights and is currently training for a main event fight against Brian Ortega at UFC Fresno on Dec. 9. With UFC 218 taking place on Dec. 2, it would make sense to insert Swanson into the main event. Holloway defeated Swanson in 2015 via third-round submission.
- A potential fight between UFC women's featherweight champion Cris Cyborg and former bantamweight champion Holly Holm is reportedly off the table for now. The hope was for that fight to take place at UFC 219 on Dec. 30, but Holm's agent said talks are "dead" at this point.
"Holly was anxiously awaiting the Dec. 30 fight with Cyborg and had been training for it," Holm's agent Lenny Fresquez told MMAFighting.com. "But we could not come to financial terms for this featherweight title bout in December. We look forward to meeting her under the right circumstances."
- It is fight week! UFC Fight Night: Norfolk will take place on Saturday on FS1 with prelims starting at 8 p.m. The card is headlined by an exciting lightweight fight between No. 8-ranked Dustin Poirier and former champion Anthony Pettis. The co-main event will be Matt Brown vs. Diego Sanchez in what is expected to be Brown's retirement fight. You can watch the Countdown to UFC Norfolk by clicking here.