UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway wasn’t the only fighter asked by the UFC to save this weekend’s UFC 223.
Holloway ultimately opted to replace Tony Ferguson and face Khabib Nurmagomedov on less than one week’s notice for the lightweight title in the evening’s headliner, but top 145-pound contender Brian Ortega was on the UFC’s list of replacement possibilities as well.
Ortega revealed Monday on Twitter that promotion president Dana White called him after the Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov cancellation and that “T-City” had accepted the title shot up a weight class.