What a difference a week can make… or two in this case. After a horrible weight cut and “female issues”; Aspen Ladd looks for redemption in a new main event slot. And she’s doing so at a new weight class. After she missed weight for her fight with Macy Chaisson, it was called off. It’s far from the first time a female missed weight and used “that time of the month” as a reason, true or not. But this one had a lot of people talking.
Especially former bantamweight champion, Miesha Tate, who did so on twitter:
You’re the only coward in this conversation. Aspen is a fantastic fighter & mentally tough to even attempt the kind of cuts she does but her lack of preparedness falls heavily on you. If you worried about her as much as you did your hair she’d be well off. #liar #coward #joke https://t.co/4w6Lu22xtc
— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) October 4, 2021
Exactly, thank you Lady! Appreciate you https://t.co/uJd8jLgzkL
— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) October 4, 2021
“He’s the only coward in this whole conversation.”@MieshaTate responded to the tweets of Aspen Ladd’s coach after Miesha’s criticism of Ladd’s #UFCVegas38 weigh-in
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) October 5, 2021
?Hear Miesha & @ReneePaquette‘s full conversation on the Throwing Down podcast⏬https://t.co/FpdGhGFbUY pic.twitter.com/LLOSwwdS0u
Ladd Looks For Redemption, New Card, New Weight
The third-ranked bantamweight, Ladd; now moves up to featherweight. And in doing so, Ladd actually saves a card that started falling apart. The October 16 card at the Apex was to be main evented by Tate against Ketlen Vieira. That fight got postponed when Tate tested positive for Covid-19.
The new main event slid up from the co-main slot. Holly Holm versus Norma Dumont. And now that fight has fallen off too. Thanks to a knee injury suffered by Holm. The news first broke by ESPN and then MMAJunkie. The seriousness of the injury is still unknown at this early time.
The UFC was looking originally to keep both Tate and Holm on a similar time line in hopes of running their 135 title fight back. But then enter Ladd. The UFC quickly came to terms with the 26-year old star. Good news for Ladd, but a big change for “The Immortal”. Holly is a stand up striker with length, while Ladd is more wrestling based, despite her six-to-one knockout-to-submission results.
While the Brazilian Dumont only has two-submission wins (the last in 2017), she’s no stranger to grappling. She has a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a black belt in Sanda (Chinese Kickboxing). However with ten-less pounds to cut this time, Ladd should have a bounce in her step.
