Holloway out with concussion

and the UFC light heavyweight champion, who is moving up to challenge heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic in the main event.

“Glad to be back in action,” Holloway said. “Glad to be rocking and rolling. This week is going to be special . ... I feel blessed. It’s a huge fight for sure, and I’m just so grateful and so thankful to be part of a week like this. People don’t understand. This is the Super Bowl of the UFC. There’s two fight cards you want to get on: The International Fight Week or the end-of-the-year card, and I got on one of them.”

The 26-year-old Holloway is one of the UFC’s most dominant and most charismatic champions, but he has been pulled from three prospective bouts this year due to three apparently different health problems.

Holloway initially was scheduled to defend his belt against former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 on March 3, but he was pulled from the bout in early February due to a leg injury.

Holloway then volunteered to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight belt on six days’ notice in early April after Tony Ferguson dropped out of the muchanticipated title bout with an injury. But Holloway couldn’t make the weight cut in time, with doctors pulling him from the show one day before the weighin when he showed distress.

Holloway last fought in December, when he stopped former champ Jose Aldo for the second consecutive time.

He won the interim featherweight title by beating Anthony Pettis in December 2016, and he took the undisputed title with his first victory over Aldo last June.