Resting Max Holloway is the right call

For once we should be glad that Max Holloway lost a “fight.”

Not one in the octagon, where he was 19-3, but deep in his own corner.

Wednesday, three days before his much-anticipated UFC featherweight championship defense against Brian Ortega was to take place in Las Vegas, Holloway’s appearance was canceled due to “concussion-like symptoms,” his management team said.

“Max fought with his team to continue with the fight,” the statement added.

Not surprising, perhaps, given who Holloway is and what he is about. But, as dedicated as Holloway is to his craft and as much as he has laser focused on the bout after two previous appearances this year were scratched, any notion of going through with it was a battle he needed to lose.

You just wish it had been a unanimous decision — and earlier.

Whatever is going on with the 27-year-old Holloway — and fans and opponents alike have expressed their hope for the best for the Waianae warrior on social media — picking up the gloves again for what lined up as one of his toughest fights before whatever ails him is corrected would have been about the worst thing he could have done.

Especially while doctors are apparently unsure of the cause, according to Dana White, UFC president. White told a press conference Thursday, “It’s a weird situation. There’s a couple of different people who think it’s concussion related and some think it’s weight-cut related. They haven’t really gotten down to the bottom of what it is.

“But according to him he feels fine, but obviously he’s not fine. So we’re going to continue to try to figure out what’s wrong with Max Holloway,” White said.

Why the fight was still even under consideration under the circumstances, which included developing concerns late last week and a trip to a hospital emergency room Monday, is hard to fathom.

But at least the preponderance of troubling symptoms — flashing vision, slurred speech and difficulty in rising from a nap, according to his management — won out.

If you glimpsed video of his lethargic public workout session Wednesday, it wasn’t difficult to see he wasn’t his usual self. Fox Sports’ Michael Bisping took quick note of Holloway’s droopy countenance in a TV interview and asked, “You look like you just got out of bed. Are you tired? What’s going on? How’s the weight cut? Are you drained? You look a little sleepy.”

Holloway attempted to dismiss the concerns saying he was “good” and suggested media commitments were making him tired.

But Bisping persisted, saying it seemed Holloway “was about to fall asleep.”

Only later on was the semi-main event of the International Fight Week UFC 226 card cancelled.

It is part of a lengthening UFC trend. More than a dozen UFC main or semi-main events have been canceled for various reasons this year. Its the fourth consecutive year its International Fight Week has lost a world title bout.

This isn’t the first time that Holloway has been in harm’s way, of course. Back in April he took a fight for the vacant lightweight title with Khabib Nurmagomedov on six days’ notice after another opponent was forced to bow out, this despite the necessity of having to drop 30 pounds to get down to the 155-pound limit.

Over his protests, a New York Athletic Commission physician eventually pulled him out at the weigh-in.

On Thursday, White ruled out a Holloway-Ortega bout from consideration for UFC 227 on Aug. 4 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, later adding, “There’s no way this guy is going to fight anytime soon.”

Sad as it is for now, it is the best news to come out of a bad situation.