MMA - UFC 222 Update Pg1 Ferguson out of UFC 223

UPDATE 4/1/18 - Tony allegedly out of UFC 223 with knee injury
I'm going to state for the record, right here, at the risk of humiliation, that I think this is an elaborate April Fools joke

Taking this from Luke Thomas' youtube channel:
- Says UFC made it official, not April Fools
- This is the fourth match up with them where one of them pulls out
- Says Max Holloway will step in, 7 days notice, to replace Ferguson. Max is a 145'er, so taking match at 155 is easy for making weight
- Apparently Khabib doesn't have an issue with this and will go ahead with the fight
- Allegedly the problem with Tony is a knee injury (maybe kicking steel poles was a bad idea?)
- The fight is still for the 155lb belt

Looking at UFC Twitter, they have this image, from Tony




MMA World youtube channel has interview with Dana White
- Says Tony tore the LCL off the bone (OK, anyone that knows anatomy knows the LCL is a very strong ligament, and avulsion is very rare to my knowledge, so I'm starting to get suspicious)
- Dana saying winner may get Conor, but who knows
- Quotes Brett Okamoto as saying injury was last Thursday and now MRI confirms extent; saying mechanism of injury was Tony saw someone and quickly veered over to say hello, tripped, and in doing that, had the injury (if this was MCL I'd be inclined to believe it but not LCL, that ligament is just too strong for that in my opinion)

From Khabib's twitter:
"Where are you now? @TheNotoriousMMA" So he's wondering why Conor didn't step in - and I wonder that as well. Perhaps because this is all a joke? For those that don't know, Conor has made comments that he was staying ready in case someone pulled out. Khabib said "stay on the line". Don't see any tweets from Conor and you'd think he'd be all over this for the publicity if nothing else. My suspicion is deepening.

From MMA and More youtube channel
- Expanded interview with Dana White, saying he didn't ask Conor to step in because 1 wk for a weight cut would be tough and because he wants to put Conor into a fight with a lot of lead time for hype, promotion, etc (ok, I can buy that, but it's problematic that Conor said he was staying ready, which implies he should have been culling his weight accordingly)
- Dana White said he's never booking this fight ever again

I say it's an April Fools

END UPDATE





Hector Lombard is DQ'd in first prelim? HItting after the bell, I think. Still a little confused on what the official word is.