Ladd tested positive for COVID-19.
Aspen Ladd’s quest to get her career back on track has hit a setback.
MMA Fighting reports that Ladd tested positive for COVID-19, nixing her matchup with former UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger Sara McMann from the UFC San Diego lineup on August 13th. The promotion is reportedly looking towards rescheduling the bout for UFC 279 in September, but that’s all just preliminary talk and nothing official.
Ladd (9-3) began her career 8-0 and seemingly on the road to a title shot at just 24 years old, but those hopes were dashed after a quick TKO loss to Germaine de Randamie in 2019. A third-round TKO win over Yana Kunitskaya followed soon after, but she missed all of 2020 (including a cancelled fight vs. McMann) with ACL and MCL tears. Since her return she’s suffered losses to Norma Dumont at featherweight and most recently Raquel Pennington at bantamweight.
McMann (13-6) is still going strong at 41 years old. The Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling unsuccessfully challenged for the UFC title against Ronda Rousey way back in 2014, but she remains ranked in the top-10 all these years later. Her last fight was a unanimous decision win over Karol Rosa at UFC Columbus.
UFC San Diego is headlined by a men’s bantamweight fight between former champion Dominick Cruz and rising Ecuadorian star Marlon Vera.