Aspen Ladd and Sara McMann were supposed to meet tomorrow night on UFC Fight Night: Poirier vs. Hooker, but Ladd suffered a knee injury and was pulled from the bout.
This knee injury couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Ladd, as it occurred during her final sparring session before the bout against McMann.
“It was my last hard day of training, last sparring session,” Ladd said to MMA Junkie. “It was a wrestling-type situation and then just my foot got caught and the rest of my body turned, heard a loud pop. That was a week before I got diagnosed with what it was. So during that week, I had still planned to fight. Don’t get me wrong, it hurt, but it was like, ‘Eh, my weight is really good, it just hurts, I can work through this,’ and that was the plan.”
McMann wound up being pulled from the card as well, but no reason was given by the fighter or the UFC for her withdrawal.
Ladd may be a bantamweight fighter, but she is willing to compete at 135 pounds and 145 pounds going forward.
“The end of the road is the same in both divisions and a lot of the 35ers, if you just take out the water cut, (are) natural 45’s,” Ladd said. “I would have no problem fighting both divisions.”
There is no word yet on when Ladd will return to action, but more should be known as Ladd’s knee injury heals up.
