Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone, as UFC Fight Night 155 blew the roof off Golden 1 Center last Saturday night (July 13, 2019) in Sacramento. Plenty of fighters were left licking their wounds, including Ricky Simon, who was knocked out in less than a minute by returning legend Urijah Faber (see it).
And Darren Elkins, who dropped his third straight bout after coming up short to Ryan Hall following 15 hard-fought minutes. But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now 48 hours removed from the show?
Aspen Ladd.
Coming into her headlining fight against Germaine de Randamie, Ladd nabbed an 8-0 record, including winning her first three fights under the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) banner. Another win for the 24 year-old prospect, and a title shot could’ve been next.
Unfortunately for Ladd, her fight was over just a quickly as it began, as “Iron Lady” tagged her with a straight right hand that dropped her, and ultimately forced referee Herb Dean to step in and put an end to the fight just 16 seconds in.
The stoppage took the air out of all the fans in the arena, who felt putting an end to the fight was a bit premature. And I, for one, agree.
Look, Herb Dean is the best in the business, but even the best make mistakes every now and again. Granted, the shot Germaine landed was right on the kisser, dropping Ladd to the canvas, but Herb didn’t give Aspen a fighting chance, as he dove in to put an end to it right away. In fact, Germaine’s second strike on the downed opponent didn’t even land.
I get it, Herb has the best view, he saw her face, he looked into her eyes, and everything else that is thrown out there when trying to defend a bad call, but since when is getting dropped — not knocked out — enough to put an end to the fight?
It’s especially crushing for Ladd, who was all class in defeat, and refused to badmouth Dean for the call, much like Robbie Lawler also refused to do likewise when Dean called his fight against Ben Askren, despite “Ruthless” giving a thumbs up.
”Not the result we wanted, I’ll roll with it,” Ladd wrote on Twitter. “Respect to @IronLadyMMA she did her job, it’s all good with @HerbDeanMMA thank u to my crew.”
Being a referee is tough, but having Ladd suffer the first loss of her professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career like that stings and is going to stick with her for a while. That said, she has her whole combat sports career ahead of her, and she has time to start another streak to get back into the championship mix.
That said, she needs a chance to get back into the win column, and quick, so perhaps that fight against Holly Holm — who is also coming off a loss — should be next. The two were set to duke it out at UFC 235 before Holly was yanked her from the fight to continue with contract negotiations, which ultimately got her a title fight
Any objections?
For complete UFC Sacramento results and coverage click here.