LAS VEGAS — Nina Ansaroff couldn’t make weight and now she won’t be able to fight, either.
The lone women’s bout at UFC 187 was canceled Saturday afternoon when doctors deemed Ansaroff unfit to compete due to the flu, the UFC announced. Ansaroff was set to meet popular strawweight contender Rose Namajunas on the FOX Sports 1 prelims portion of the card.
On Friday, Ansaroff (6-4) came in at 120 pounds, four pounds over the strawweight minimum. Ansaroff got the flu last week and didn’t have a chance to fully recover from it before her weight cut, according to Ed Kapp, the director of communications for her management company Guardian Sports Group.
It was immediately unclear if either fighter will get their show or win money.
It would have been the first fight for Namajunas (3-2) since she fell by submission to Carla Esparza in the inaugural UFC women’s strawweight title fight at The Ultimate Fighter 21 Finale in December. Ansaroff is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Juliana Lima in her UFC debut last November.
“I feel just horrible about this,” Ansaroff said in a release. “I want to apologize to Rose, the UFC and of course to the fans who have really embraced me and looked forward to this fight. If it was up to me, I’d definitely fight. I was willing to fight, of course, with or without the flu because I’m a fighter. But this is out of my control and I just hope it’s rescheduled as soon as possible.”
Ansaroff’s manager Charles McCarthy said he’s hoping the fight with Namajunas will be rescheduled soon.
“This is a very unfortunate situation for a lot of reasons,” McCarthy said. “But at the end of the day, these things happen, unfortunately, and we’re just going to have to roll with the punches. I’m hopeful the UFC will put the fight on a card very soon and we’ll get the fight that everyone was really looking forward to watching, sooner rather than later.”