UFC 223 Absolute Chaos! Mcgregor Arrested After Going Crazy! Holloway Misses Weight! Ragin Al Steps In As Headliner!

What appeared to be a dream card is in absolute shambles after the past 24 hours.

MCGREGOR INCIDENT

It almost looked like a scene out of WWE yesterday afternoon, when Mcgregor made an appearance at UFC 223 media day. The Irish superstar showed up to the Barclays center with about 20 of his friends and teammates. The whole incident happened because of the confrontation between Khabib and Artem Lobov a couple of days before. Mcgregor and his crew had their eyes set on a bus Khabib and his manager were on. Not only was Khabib on this bus, but also many other fighters who were set to compete Saturday. Mcgregor and his crew started attacking the bus. At one point, Mcgregor threw a metal dolly at one of the windows. This shattered the window and injured both Ray Borg and Michael Chiesa. The bus ended up getting away but many fighters were shaken up because of the event. A warrant was put out for Mcgregor and late last night he turned himself in to Brooklyn police. Mcgregor was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief. Artem Lobov has also been taken off the card because of his involvement in the incident. Lobov was not arrested because of his involvement. UFC president Dana White expressed how disgusted he is by Mcgregor’s actions. According to Dana McGregor’s future when it comes to the UFC is unclear at this moment. Mcgregor was in court this morning and could face some serious criminal charges. Mcgregor’s bail is set at 50k.

HOLLOWAY MISSES WEIGHT

Who knew this card could deal with even more misfortune? After three fights were canceled because of Mcgregor’s actions, MMA fans got even more bad news this morning. Max Holloway took this fight on short notice after Ferguson pulled out with a tore LCL. Many people question if Max Holloway would be able to make weight in time. As fighter after fighter weighed in early this morning, fans were eagerly waiting to see if Holloway made weight. Suddenly news broke that Holloway was physically unfit to continue cutting weight, and his fight against Khabib would be canceled. Khabib’s chances at a UFC title have been lost twice in the matter of two weeks. Many lightweights on the card wanted this fight. Paul Felder was campaigning to fight Khabib. Felder’s opponent Iaquinta was campaigning for this fight. Anthony Pettis was another name floating around as a potential opponent for Khabib.

Al Iaquinta New Headliner

At around 4:15pm today the UFC announced Al Iaquinta as the new headliner of UFC 223. This fight is still 5 rounds but if Iaquinta wins he will not win the title. Reason being he weighed in a 155.2 pounds. For this to be a championship fight he had to weigh in exactly 155 pounds on the dot, or under 155 pounds. Since Khabib weighed in at 154 he is eligible to win the title if he beats Iaquinta. This is a huge opportunity for Iaquinta and it’s in front of his home state. Iaquinta was originally suppose to take on Paul Felder on this card. Felder is now without an opponent.

Lets hope that there are no more changes to UFC 223.

Stephen Caloggero (@steveo_calo)