Nate Diaz scoffs at Ferguson’s injury, Holloway replacement at UFC 223

It seemed like a bad April Fool’s joke at the time, but the highly anticipated match up between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov is officially off. Shortly after news broke that the interim lightweight champion in ‘El Cucuy’ suffered a knee injury from a freak incident, many took to social media to react, including fellow 155 lb’er Nate Diaz.

The UFC quickly scrambled to find a replacement, announcing that featherweight champion Max Holloway is moving up to replace Ferguson with less than a week’s notice. Dana Whitesays Holloway vs Khabib will be for the real lightweight championship, while also saying that Ferguson’s interim belt will be stripped as well.

Diaz jabbed at those last minute moves from the UFC as well.

White said that lightweight champ Conor McGregor wasn’t even offered the replacement fight, and based on Diaz’s tweets, it may be safe to assume that it wasn’t presented to him either.

It is also worth noting that last February, Holloway pulled out of his title defense and wouldn’t be able to compete against Frankie Edgar at last month’s UFC 222. It’s already a tall task fighting a dominant wrestler in Khabib with a full camp, but Holloway is not only returning from injury, he’s coming in there on six days’ notice.