An injury to former UFC champion Holly Holm has led to a switch to next weekend’s main event.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed that a knee injury has knocked Holm out of her featherweight bout with Norma Dumont at UFC Vegas 40 on Oct. 16 and that Aspen Ladd will step in as a replacement.
The 145-pound matchup will still serve as the event’s headliner. MMA journalist Ariel Helwani was first to report Holm’s scratch, while ESPN was first to report the new booking.
Ladd was scheduled to compete this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 38 in a bantamweight bout against Macy Chiasson, but she missed weight and the fight was eventually pulled from the card.
The latest battle with the scale led to several MMA fans and pundits suggesting that Ladd make the move up to 145, which she’ll do in her first promotional main event — her first fight since a third-round TKO win over Yana Kunitskaya in December 2019.
Dumont, who also had issues on the scale trying to make 135 pounds, looks to make it three straight victories. After a KO loss to Megan Anderson in her promotional debut in February 2020, Dumont has picked up decision wins over Ashlee Evans-Smith and Felicia Spencer ahead of the biggest fight of her career to date.
