UFC women’s flyweight champion Nicco Montano has been pulled from UFC 228 after she was taken to hospital Friday morning prior to weigh-ins. Montano was scheduled to defend her 125-pound title against Valentina Shevchenko in the co-main event.
Shevchenko weighed in at 124.5 pounds but the UFC was unable to find a replacement opponent on short notice, so she will not compete on the card.
The UFC released the following statement when confirming the bout was off:
“As a precautionary measure, UFC flyweight Nicco Montano was transported to a medical facility Friday morning due to health concerns. The scheduled flyweight championship bout between Montaño and Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 228 has been cancelled.”
Steve Hanna, a member of Montano’s team, confirmed the champ’s health issues stemmed from her weight cut.
“She will be fine in a few days,” Hanna told MMAFighting in a statement. “The UFC medical team was called in to evaluate her this morning during the process of her weight cut. They determined that she had to cease cutting weight and be transported to and treated at the local hospital for issues regarding her kidney function.”
The is the second time in as many years that one of Shevchenko’s opponents was hospitalized and withdrew from a card on extremely short notice. Back at UFC 213 in Edmonton in July 2017, women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes fell ill the day of her scheduled fight with Shevchenko and was transported to a hospital. She was unable to compete and that fight was called off.
The multiple-time Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion eventually fought Nunes two months later at UFC 215 but dropped a controversial split decision. Shevchenko then decided to drop down to the UFC’s newly-created women’s 125-pound weight class in which she earned a dominant victory over Priscila Cachoeira in February in her divisional debut.
Montano is just 4-2 as a professional mixed martial artist but she won the UFC’s inaugural women’s 125-pound championship this past December after a successful run on The Ultimate Fighter. The 29-year-old defeated Lauren Murphy, Montana Stewart and Barb Honchak before beating Roxanne Modafferi in the finale. All her wins were via unanimous decision.
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UFC 228, which takes place at American Airlines Center in Dallas, is headlined by welterweight champion Tyron Woodley taking on rising star Darren Till. A bantamweight bout between contenders John Dodson and Jimmie Rivera was promoted from the prelims to the main card.
Here is a look at the complete UFC 228 lineup with weigh-in results in parentheses.
MAIN CARD
— Tyron Woodley (170) vs. Darren Till (169)
— Brandon Davis (146) vs. Zabit Magomedsharipov (146)
— Jessica Andrade (116) vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz (115)
— Abdul Razak Alhassan (170.5) vs. Niko Price (170.5)
— John Dodson (135.5) vs. Jimmie Rivera (136)
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Carla Esparza (115.5) vs. Tatiana Suarez (115)
— Cody Stamann (135.5) vs. Aljamain Sterling (135.5)
— Charles Byrd (185) vs. Darren Stewart (185.5)
— Diego Sanchez (171) vs. Craig White (171)
— Jim Miller (155.5) vs. Alex White (155)
— Irene Aldana (135) vs. Lucie Pudilova (134)
— Jarred Brooks (125.5) vs. Roberto Sanchez (126)
— Frank Camacho (171) vs. Geoff Neal (170.5)
