What happened to Hailey Cowan?
The up-and-coming bantamweight was pulled from the UFC Vegas 70 event after suffering an ovarian cyst rupture. The subsequent blood loss was enough to prevent “All Hail” from making it to the scale for the early (and official) weigh ins, stranding opponent Ailin Perez on the “Sin City” scale.
“I had an ovarian cyst rupture in the night before weigh-ins,” Cowan wrote on social media. “I lost a lot of blood and the doctors pulled me. I was on weight and ready to go. Super unfortunate but we will rebook ASAP. Apologies to the fans and my opponent, but this was beyond my control.”
Cowan wasn’t the only fighter to miss the UFC Vegas 70 card. Event headliner Nikita Krylov was also pulled at the eleventh hour, forcing the promotion to rebook his Ryan Spann showdown for a later date. I’m sure that doesn’t come as much consolation to Perez, who left her family behind in Argentina.
“The toughest part was leaving my son,” Perez told MMA Junkie. “I wasn’t with him on New Year’s. I’m not there at night to keep him company, and he’s just five. He just started kindergarten and I missed out on his first days in kindergarten. I’ve missed out on soccer tournaments of his, and I really wanted to be there. He plays goalie on a team. That hurts me a lot. As I mother, I value those things. By far the biggest sacrifice is being away from my son.”
UFC is expected to rebook Cowan vs. Perez in the coming weeks.