Former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar had to pull out of the UFC 218 main event against Max Holloway due to injury. The New Jersey native would be replaced by former UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo.
UFC President Dana White has seen a recent surge in ticket sales for UFC 218 and he praised Aldo for that.
“You know what’s funny?” White said at a media luncheon. “So, the Detroit show is on par to sell out. We’re selling out. The show’s going to be a sell out. You know when you’re going to sell out because of how many tickets you have left and how many days. We put Jose Aldo on the card, and – (vanishing sound). Tickets. Yeah.”
Holloway and Aldo met before at UFC 212, with Holloway defeating the Brazilian to win the UFC Featherweight Title.
White also wonders why somebody in Edgar’s training camp would hit him so hard as to cause the facial injury that knocked him out of the bout.
“My question for Frankie – and I haven’t talked to Frankie yet, Frankie is in Russia or something right now, I think – but how do you break your orbital in training?” White said. “Unless it was a freak knee to the eye in wrestling or something like that. Who’s hitting you that hard in your training camp that you break your orbital? That’s insane. Anybody know the answer to that question?”
UFC 218 takes place on Saturday, December 2 from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan with Max Holloway and Jose Aldo headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
