Amanda Nunes pulled out of her scheduled bantamweight title defence with Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 213 this weekend after falling ill.
Nunes, who won the belt from Miesha Tate before defending it against Ronda Rousey, had reportedly been sick in the days leading up to the fight and was taken to hospital after making weight on Saturday (Australian time).
According to UFC president Dana White, Nunes was medically cleared to fight Shevchenko, but said she couldn’t.
“Yesterday she wasn’t feeling good, so we sent her to the hospital and checked everything out and she was fine,” White told Fox Sports.
“She weighed in, she made weight, she came to the ceremonial weigh-ins.
“So this morning (the morning of the fight) she got up and said she wasn’t feeling good. So we said ‘let’s get you into the hospital, let’s get some more fluids into you,’ but she’d already made up her mind that she wasn’t going to fight.
“Is she medically cleared to fight? She’s medically cleared to fight, but according to her, she doesn’t feel right.”
It is unclear exactly what is wrong with Nunes, but Shevchenko hinted there was something amiss with her weight cut.
The would-be challenger took to social media in the wake of the announcement that Nunes was out.
It’s just the latest setback for the card after Cody Garbrandt vs TJ Dillashaw and Cowboy Cerrone vs Robbie Lawler were both scrapped.
Aussie fighter Robert Whittaker’s interim middleweight title fight against Yoel Romero has been moved up to the main event, with fighters and pundits arguing about whether Nunes should have been stripped of her title.
Some fans believe Nunes pulled out late because she was scared, which is ridiculous considering she’s already beaten Shevchenko and is coming off devastating first round wins over two pioneers of women’s MMA.
Strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who was in Las Vegas for International Fight Week, offered to step in, with Shevchenko apparently open to a 125-pound fight with the Polish legend.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission didn’t sanction the fight, saying there wasn’t enough time to clear her medicals.
Other last-minute opponents were offered up, including Jessica Eye, but the same issue prevented any serious attempts at salvaging the main event.
It’s worth noting that when Joe Soto stepped up to fight TJ Dillashaw in 2014, Soto was already scheduled to fight that night, had weighed-in and done all the necessary medicals. The same goes for Seth Petruzelli when he fought Kimbo Slice in 2008.
Last year, when Jon Jones was pulled from UFC 200 for a failed drug test, Anderson Silva was drafted in to fight Daniel Cormier on three days’ notice. The medicals were expedited for that bout, but even then, they were stretching the limits of what was possible.
Here’s a quick rundown of what fighters and experts were saying about the situation.
I was going to throw in some fan tweets as well, but there’s some terrible opinions being thrown around there.
