Holly Holm Out Of UFC Vegas 40 Main Event

UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Dumont loses one-half of its main event.

Ariel Helwani was first to report the news that former bantamweight champion Holly Holm is out of her main ever fight against Norma Dumont with a knee injury.

There is no word on a replacement for Holm or if the UFC scraps the female fight entirely.

Holm (14-5) is riding a two-fight win streak for the first time since her run to the title in 2015. After unsuccessfully challenging for the bantamweight title, Holm, with 2-0 in 2020 defeating Raquel Pennington and derailing the Irene Aldana hype train on ‘Fight Island.’ “The Preacher’s Daughter” is always one or two fights away from a title shot, and a win over Dumont could have set her up with another crack at the featherweight title. She lost the inaugural featherweight title fight title.

Dumont (6-1) is also riding a two-fight winning streak after getting knocked out in her UFC debut against Megan Anderson. The Brazilan started her UFC career at featherweight but went down to bantamweight in her second fight. She would miss weight and go back up to featherweight in her most recent fight, defeating title challenger Felicia Spencer via unanimous decision. With the featherweight division being a barren wasteland of contenders, a win over Holm could have set Dumont up with a date with double champion Amanda Nunes.

There is no doubt that UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Dumont was one of the weakest cards of the year before Holm’s injury. However, if no replacement is found, the UFC could bump Andrei Arlovski vs. Carlos Felipe from the co-main event to the main event. It would be the first time former heavyweight champion Arlovski has been in the main event since UFC Fight Night: Arlovski vs. Barnett in 2016.

UFC Vegas 38 will occur at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV, on October 16 and broadcast on ESPN+.

The October 16 fight card now looks like this:

    Norma Dumont vs. TBD

    Andrei Arlovski vs. Carlos Felipe

    L’udovit Klein vs. Nate Landwehr

    Julian Marquez vs. Jordan Wright

    Ariane Carnelossi vs. Istela Nunes

    Andrew Sanchez vs. Bruno Silva

    Timur Valiev vs. Daniel Santos

    Da Un Jung vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu

    Brandon Davis vs. Danaa Batgerel

    Manon Fiorot vs. Mayra Bueno Silva

    Ramazan Emeev vs. Danny Roberts

    Luana Carolina vs. Sijara Eubanks

    Jim Miller vs. Erick Gonzales