An exciting middleweight fight between Kevin Holland and Trevin Giles was set to kick off the main card of UFC Vegas 5, but Giles fainted right before walking out and the fight was canceled.
It’s been a wild 48 hours at UFC Vegas 5. Just yesterday, Eric Spicely, Ray Borg, and Timur Valiev all pulled out of their bouts for a variety of reasons. Then, Spicely’s short-notice replacement, Charlie Ontiveros, was deemed unfit to compete at the weigh-ins. Earlier on fight day, Gerald Meerschaert tested positive for COVID-19 and his main card bout against Ed Herman was canceled. Now, just before the main card, Trevin Giles fainted and his opening fight against Kevin Holland was canceled as announced on the broadcast.
Giles was shown on camera after the announcement sitting down surrounded by trainers and officials. He was pleading with officials to allow him to fight, but of course, that’s not going to happen. The cause of this incident is unknown, as Giles did not have any visible issues making weight for this contest.
Giles is 2-2 in the UFC thus far. He knocked out Antonio Braga Neto in his debut, then took submission losses to Meerschaert and Zak Cummings. He found himself in a wild situation last fight, with his original opponent, Antonio Arroyo, being pulled from the card the day before the fight. Veteran James Krause stepped up and the pair battled it out in a Fight of the Night split decision that Giles won.
Kevin Holland is serious about fighting Ed Herman tonight, per his team. Herman’s opponent Gerald Meerschaert withdrew earlier today due to a positive COVID-19 test. #UFCVegas5
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) August 2, 2020
Holland stepped up to take this fight on a week’s notice after Jun Yong Park pulled out. He did tweet out earlier that he’d be willing to fight Ed Herman tonight, and that was before the Giles incident. We’ll see if anything funky happens.
