Yesterday the MMA community was thrown into outright upheaval when word arrived that Amanda Nunes had been forced out of her championship fight versus Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of UFC 213 from Las Vegas. Many were quick to judge “The Lioness,” a larger women’s bantamweight who cuts a decent amount of weight to […]
Yesterday the MMA community was thrown into outright upheaval when word arrived that Amanda Nunes had been forced out of her championship fight versus Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of UFC 213 from Las Vegas.
Many were quick to judge “The Lioness,” a larger women’s bantamweight who cuts a decent amount of weight to make the 135-pound title fight limit, as having had a failed weight cut that made her unable to fight. Dana White had another story, offering the fact that Nunes had been cleared to fight by their doctors and that it was ’90 percent mental.’
Nunes just claimed on Twitter that her being forced to pull out had nothing to do with her weight cut, but another illness altogether. She expounded on the exact nature of her ailment, tweeting a detailed explanation this afternoon that she was dealing with sinusitis and was unable to be punched in the face and head while dealing with such pressure:
The women’s champ will head on to a rematch with “Bullet” most likely at September 9’s UFC 215 pay-per-view event from Edmonton, but White stated Nunes will no longer headline a high[profile card for the time being.
He’s said that about Jon Jones and his anticipated rematch with Daniel Cormier at July 29’s UFC 214 from Anaheim, however, and it’s going to take a pretty huge fight to demote Nunes vs. Shevchenko to the co-main.
Let’s just hope it happens no matter what slot it is on the docket.
Although last night’s (Sat., July 8, 2017) UFC 213 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, delivered a decent night of MMA action for fight fans in Sin City, most of the card’s momentum was obviously lost when women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes was hospitalized and out of her awaited rematch with Valentina Shevchenko for […]
Although last night’s (Sat., July 8, 2017) UFC 213 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, delivered a decent night of MMA action for fight fans in Sin City, most of the card’s momentum was obviously lost when women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes was hospitalized and out of her awaited rematch with Valentina Shevchenko for the title.
The scenario got a bit stranger when word arrived detailing the exact nature of Nunes’ ailment, where she apparently went to the hospital on both Friday and Saturday and was ultimately cleared to fight, but decided not to. This understandably angered Dana White, who explained that “The Lioness” had indeed been medically cleared to participate in the fight in an interview with FOX Sports 1:
Clearly disappointed at the harsh realization her biggest-ever fight was about to be called off for the time being, Shevchenko also expressed her frustration about the champion’s last-minute absence in a statement of her own, apologizing to her fans and vowing to stay ready for the fight, which was rumored by White to be rescheduled for September 9’s UFC 215 from Edmonton.
“The Lioness” then broke her silence on Twitter, apologizing to her ‘true fans’ and affirming she would be ready when the fight was back on:
Sorry to all my true fans. The fight will be rescheduled and I will be back at 100%. ???? Essa luta vai ser remarcada e estarei 100% pic.twitter.com/8WEttqMUgM
The apology is nice to be sure, but the fact remains a high-profile UFC pay-per-view main event was ruined at the absolute last minute due to what most believe are complications due to weight cutting, and that only serves to shed a light on the bigger, more overarching problem of extreme cuts in MMA, a nefarious aspect of the fight game that athletic commissions are finally taking seriously by making efforts to curb.
Nunes and Shevchenko will have their day in the octagon, but “The Lioness’” stock took a big hit even if she is the most dominant 135-pound female on the Earth.
Only hours before the fight was set to go down, the MMA world was dealt a disappointing blow earlier today (Sat., July 8, 2017) when it was announced that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been hospitalized and was out of her title fight versus Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of tonight’s UFC […]
Only hours before the fight was set to go down, the MMA world was dealt a disappointing blow earlier today (Sat., July 8, 2017) when it was announced that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been hospitalized and was out of her title fight versus Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of tonight’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas.
The two top-ranked women’s bantamweights in the world by a solid margin, Nunes and Shevchenko have a long history with each other after their initial match at last year’s UFC 196, a fight which “The Lioness” won on the scorecards but was in trouble as she gassed in the third and final round, opening up the opportunity for “Bullet” to score enough that most feel she would have finished the fight where it a five-round affair.
That fight made the rematch one of the best and closely-contested affairs of a down 2017 for the UFC, so losing it naturally threw fans into an upheaval.
And Shevchenko understandably feels the same way, as she was set for the biggest fight of her long and decorated martial arts career after she won her way back to a rematch with Nunes, this time for the belt, by defeating Holly Holm and Julianna Pena. She released a statement containing her reaction on her official Instagram this evening:
“Today I am 100% ready for this fight. During the last 3 months of training I did everything to be in my best shape for this fight. Nunes couldn’t cut weight correctly and was hospitalized. She wanted to cut weight and recover rapidly to have the advantage. The end result, everything went wrong. Even though she was medically cleared to fight, she backed out. This fight was originally offered to take place in April and she would not accept then.
“I did my part and am very upset that I can’t fight for the title today on this great event. I am even more upset for all my dear fans who support me every time throughout the world and to those who traveled to see me fight here in Las Vegas live. I feel frustrated about what happened but I won’t relax, will not put down energy in my preparation, and will wait until the UFC gives us another date for the fight.”
Photo: Ron Chenoy for USA TODAY Sports
“Bullet” is admittedly frustrated at the situation, where the rising Russian had many fans coming from far-off locales to see her fight in Las Vegas, costing them much of their time and hard-earned money for what amounted to nothing more than disappointment.
The same could be said for herself, as she was headed for by far the biggest payday of her four-fight UFC career in a bout that could have seen her accomplish her ultimate goal. She should have another chance soon, however, as UFC President Dana White hinted that Nunes vs. Shevchenko II could headline September’s UFC 215 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Either way, Nunes may have some weight cutting issues to deal with as her rival suggested, and it’s just not a good look for a UFC champion to be withdrawing the day of a high-profile summer pay-per-view (PPV(0 event. Will it motivate “Bullet” to come out even stronger when they finally do throw down in the rematch?
The MMA world is currently dealing with the shockwave sent through the sport when it was confirmed this afternoon that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been forced out of her UFC 213 main event against Valentina Shevchenko after she had been hospitalized. With the odd scenario of a UFC pay-per-view main event being […]
The MMA world is currently dealing with the shockwave sent through the sport when it was confirmed this afternoon that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been forced out of her UFC 213 main event against Valentina Shevchenko after she had been hospitalized.
With the odd scenario of a UFC pay-per-view main event being canceled the day of the fight getting odder with each development, a top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter offered to step up a la Anderson Silva at UFC 200 to save the Fourth of July card for the UFC.
In Vegas for International Fight Week, women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk offered to step in for the much bigger ‘Lioness’ and battle Shevchenko, who ironically beat “Joanna Champion” three times through her decorated combat sports career. Jedrzejczyk posted she was trying to make the fight happen on Instagram:
A post shared by Joanna Jedrzejczyk (@joannajedrzejczyk) on
In the video, Jedrzejczyk plead with White as she wrestled ATT coach Mike Brown, goading her boss to ‘make it happen’ in ‘their city’ and get the medicals done:
“Come on Dana, come on UFC,” she said on a video. “Make it happen. Talk to the commission. Let’s have the medicals done. This is your city. Come on Dana, make it happen. I’m in shape.”
But while she said she was in fighting shape on the Instagram video, Jedrzejczyk addressed the camera directly to admit that while she wasn’t quite in fight shape as of now, she was still willing to step in on short notice and “break” Shevchenko if the promotion needed that before offering a hello to Ronda Rousey (transcribed by MMA Junkie):
“OK guys – I just got phone call from Dana, and of course I’m not in shape to fight, 100 percent” Jedrzejczyk said. “But I’m going to be honest with you, if they want me, they need me today, I step into the octagon today. Tonight, I just break Valentina. And I feel sorry to her. Of course, Amanda is sick, it sucks. (Expletive) happens sometimes.
“But yeah. So guys, train hard, train smart, and prepare well for the fight. I will see you later. Let me keep some training. And best regard to Ronda Rousey. I’m so sorry I couldn’t come today. Wish I could meet you, you the champ.”
UFC President Dana White also wrote his own Instagram post praising Jedrzejzyk, heaping attention on his 115-pound champion for being a “badass”:
But it wasn’t meant to be, ultimately, as White revealed to MMA Junkie’s John Morgan that the Nevada State Athletic Commission . (NSAC) would never let the bout take place on such short notice:
If they did, however, Shevchenko was apparently ready to go and fight Jedrzejczyk for the first UF 125-pound championship, a division that has been oft-discussed this year but yet to debut or crown a champion:
The circumstances concerning women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes’ mysterious withdrawal from her awaited title fight with Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of UFC 213 continue to devolve into just that – mystery. That’s how Nunes’ bosses at the UFC view it according to a report from TMZ Sports that detailed how Nunes stated she […]
The circumstances concerning women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes’ mysterious withdrawal from her awaited title fight with Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of UFC 213 continue to devolve into just that – mystery.
That’s how Nunes’ bosses at the UFC view it according to a report from TMZ Sports that detailed how Nunes stated she wasn’t feeling well during the week leading up to tonight, and went to the hospital on both Friday and Saturday. News swirled that Nunes was in jeopardy of withdrawing, and Ariel Helwani confirmed she had been hospitalized.
Word came soon after that multiple sources had confirmed Nunes was indeed off the pay-per-view card, but the question marks surrounding the reason for her withdrawal have remained until now. After she was checked out at the hospital, doctors reportedly found nothing wrong with Nunes. Yet she still chose to say she was not well enough to fight at UFC 21 and pulled herself off the event.
That’s a new one, and it’s a highly disappointing occurrence that is going to prompt all sorts of speculation.
Either way, the interim middleweight title bout between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will now serve as the UFC 213 main event. Keep your eyes on LowKick for any developments on this increasingly more strange story as they arrive.
The exact news fight fans didn’t want to hear is apparently coming true this afternoon as UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has reportedly been confirmed out of her awaited championship rematch with Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of tonight’s (Sat., July 8, 2017) UFC 213 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Word […]
The exact news fight fans didn’t want to hear is apparently coming true this afternoon as UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has reportedly been confirmed out of her awaited championship rematch with Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of tonight’s (Sat., July 8, 2017) UFC 213 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Word just came from Ariel Helwani that Nunes had been hospitalized after feeling ill all week long, thus thrusting the anticipated women’s title bout in serious trouble. Helwani tweeted to await for confirmation, but another trusted source in Las Vegas tweeted that the worst has been confirmed to him by multiple sources.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto posted that Nunes is ‘100 percent’ off the midsummer pay-per-view (PPV) event this evening:
Multiple sources have told me Amanda Nunes is 100 percent off UFC 213 tonight.
Ouch. That’s sure to send a shockwave through the collective MMA community, because as we’ve title fights fall apart the day before due to complications with weighing in, we’ve never seen a pay-per-view main event pulled from the lineup such a short time from when the fighters were set to make their walks.
Stay tuned for more on this rapidly developing – and extremely unfortunate – set of circumstances.
