Tonya Evinger’s return to bantamweight will have to wait a little longer.
There’s bad news concerning recent UFC title challenger Tonya Evinger. The former Invicta FC bantamweight champion is injured and out of her February showdown with Marion Reneau at UFC Fight Night: Austin. FanSided’s Amy Kaplan first reported the story on Tuesday. UFC officials have yet to announce anything with regards to this fight, but these two tweets pretty much give away that Evinger-Reneau is off.
Fml
— tonya evinger (@tonyaevinger) January 8, 2018
Sucks! For both of us! Everybody in top 15 have bouts… except @Amanda_Leoa ! You down to scrap? https://t.co/WFCtYiJJxx
— Marion Reneau (@BelizeanBruiser) January 9, 2018
Evinger (19-6) challenged for the UFC women’s featherweight belt last year, losing to Cris Cyborg by third-round TKO at UFC 214. The 36-year-old took the fight on short notice, replacing Megan Anderson, and demonstrated her toughness before finally losing via strikers for the first time in her career. This was supposed to be Evinger’s return to the bantamweight division, where he’s been on a tremendous run of form, but that’s evidently been delayed.
Reneau (8-3-1) is unbeaten in her last three fights, and is coming off a third-round TKO finish vs. Talita Bernardo at UFC Rotterdam. She was actually supposed to fight former women’s featherweight champ Germaine de Randamie, but she withdrew due to injury. “The Belizean Bruiser” also stopped Milana Dudieva in November 2016, and fought to a draw vs. Bethe Correia last March.
UFC Fight Night: Austin takes place on Sunday, February 18th and is headlined by a welterweight bout between Donald Cerrone and Yancy Medeiros. The night’s main card airs live on Fox Sports 1.