UFC 187‘s talent-rich preliminary card was just dealt a tough hit with the announcement that Rose Namajunas vs. Nina Ansaroff has been cancelled just hours before it was scheduled to take place. The news was broken by the UFC, who stated on its website that Ansaroff was deemed medically unfit to compete by doctors due to a battle with the flu.
Namajunas and Ansaroff were set to kick off the Fox Sports 1 leg of the event’s preliminary card. Namajunas has been pulled from the card entirely, and the event will proceed with 11 fights. There is no word yet as to whether the bout will be rescheduled for a later date.
For those who missed it, Ansaroff missed weight badly Friday, coming in at 120.0 pounds, a full four pounds over the cutoff for the strawweight division. Needless to say, this news sheds some light on what went wrong.
This is an unfortunate turn for both fighters, who were desperately seeking comeback wins. Namajunas was the breakout star of The Ultimate Fighter Season 20, breaking off submission wins over Alex Chambers, Joanne Calderwood and Randa Markos.
When she came up against Carla Esparza in the finale, however, the former Invicta champ handily controlled the action, taking the fight and the inaugural UFC strawweight title via third-round submission. Ansaroff, a fellow Invicta FC import, came up short in her UFC debut opposite Juliana de Lima.
The UFC has not released its revised card, but look for the Fight Pass welterweight bout between Mike Pyle and Colby Covington to be elevated onto the TV leg of the card. Keep an eye on Bleacher Report for more news and coverage of UFC 187.
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