UFC notes: Nunes out of title defense; new main event for Saturday
As the strangest year in modern history creeps toward its end, the UFC has found themselves in a stretch of needing new main events seemingly every other day.
The latest issues comes with their women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes (seen above) who is reportedly out of December’s UFC 256 due to undisclosed reasons. She was scheduled to defend her featherweight crown against Megan Anderson in the night’s main event.
Anderson tweeted she was told Nunes has “a serious medical issue” and was looking forward to making the fight happen whenever the champion is ready.
The UFC has yet to formally announce the withdrawal. As of now, the co-main event of bantamweight champion Petr Yan vs. top contender Aljamain Sterling would be the main event for the December 12th event.
On Sunday, Islam Makhachev had to withdraw from this Saturday’s ESPN+ main event against former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos due to an injury. With just five days notice, fan favorite Paul Felder has stepped up to take the fight in Las Vegas according to Dana White. The fight will still be five rounds and at 155 pounds.
Felder has won five of his last seven and is coming off a split decision loss to Dan Hooker in February.
This all comes after December 5th headliner Darren Till had to pull out his main event with Jack Hermansson due to a knee injury on Friday. Kevin Holland will take his place that night in Las Vegas, riding a four fight win streak.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.