Former UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway will look to continue his campaign towards another title shot on July 17th, as he will face Yair Rodriguez in a five-round main event fight. The headliner for a UFC “Fight Night” card was first reported by Brett Okamoto of ESPN on Wednesday.
The fight now sits atop a lineup that does not have a confirmed location at the moment.
Holloway is coming off a stellar five-round striking performance that he pulled off against Calvin Kattar. 25 minutes in the cage against Kattar showed Holloway’s high-level striking ability, handing the former champ his first win after losing a two-fight series to current 145-pound champ Alexander Volkanovski in 2019 and 2020.
The fight in July is scheduled to be three months short of nearly two years after Rodriguez’s last fight. Rodriguez last fought in October of 2019, where he scored a decision win over veteran Jeremy Stephens.
Rodriguez was scheduled to compete last year in a fight against Zabit Magomedsharipov but was eventually pulled from the fight due to injury.
UFC’s July 17th card already has numerous bouts reported for it. Here is how the show looks with the new main event in place.
Bout 9: Max Holloway (22-6) vs. Yair Rodriguez (13-2) (Featherweight)
Bout 8: Marion Reneau (9-7-1) vs. Miesha Tate (18-7) (Bantamweight)
Bout 7: Khalid Taha (13-3) vs. Sergey Morozov (16-4) (Bantamweight)
Bout 6: Billy Quarantillo (15-3) vs. Herbert Burns (11-3) (Featherweight)
Bout 5: Anderson dos Santos (21-8) vs. Miles Johns (11-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 4: Rodolfo Vieira (7-1) vs. Dustin Stoltzfus (13-2) (Middleweight)
Bout 3: Phil Hawes (11-2) vs. Deron Winn (7-2) (Middleweight)
Bout 2: Islam Makhachev (19-1) vs. Thiago Moises (15-4) (Lightweight)
Bout 1: Mateusz Gamrot (18-1) vs. Jeremy Stephens (28-18) (Lightweight)
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