Aspen Ladd To Replace Holly Holm, Fight Norma Dumont On October 16
Aspen Ladd will replace the injured Holly Holm who was expected to main event alongside Norma Dumont at UFC Vegas 40 on October 16.
On Wednesday, Ariel Helwani reported that the former bantamweight champion had been forced out of the bout due to a knee injury.
“Per sources, Holly Holm is out of the headliner fight versus Norma Dumont due to a knee injury,” Helwani wrote on SubStack. “It’s unclear at this time what the UFC will do with the main event now. Holm, according to sources, is hoping to return to action by the end of 2021.”
Soon after, ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto announced on social media that Ladd would be stepping in to replace Holm, he wrote.
“Per sources, UFC working to finalize a new main event with Aspen Ladd (@TheAspenLadd), following Holly Holm’s withdrawal against Norma Dumont due to injury.”
Ladd hasn’t fought since picking up a third-round TKO win over Yana Kunitskaya back in December 2019 due to injury. With her injury troubles behind her, Ladd was scheduled to face Macy Chiasson at UFC Vegas 38 but that fight was canceled after she struggled to weigh in at the bantamweight limit (136lbs). Ladd was visibly shaking when she stood on the scale and appeared to be on the verge of passing out during her failed attempts to hit the mark.
After the fight was scrapped from UFC Vegas 38, Ladd took to social media to explain that her weight cut issues were more complex than people might think.
“Fight is off. Again. All my fault,” Ladd wrote. “Straight up started my period 2 days back and made this cut absolutely miserable. Did the best I could, hit 137, the scale situation was a mess because the last thing I wanted was to bleed in front of the media. The fight wasn’t pulled, my opponent then decided she would rather not go through with it, as is her right. I’m going to get slammed regardless, so let it begin.”
The fight against Dumont will take place at featherweight so hopefully, that means Ladd will be able to safely make weight and the UFC Vegas 40 main event will go ahead as planned.
Do you think Aspen Ladd can make good on her first UFC main event slot?
