Shevchenko: Nunes couldn’t cut weight correctly and was hospitalized

Instead of making history by headlining UFC’s annual international fight week PPV card for the second consecutive year, Amanda Nunes will be spending the day in a local hospital. It was announced earlier today by MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani that her fight with #1 contender Valentina Shevchenko had to be scrapped from tonight’s UFC 213 event at the last-minute due to an illness. 

Nunes was reportedly sick all week but doctors could not find anything wrong with her. The UFC was aware of the situation and it was decided today that she would not be defending her title on this night. Despite great efforts by current strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk to help save the event, the card is currently going on with 11 fights and a newly promoted main event between Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero for the interim middleweight title.

Shevchenko released the following statement on social media today in regards to the cancellation of her bout with Nunes:

Today I am 100% ready for this fight. During the last 3 months of training I did everything to be in my best shape for this fight. Nunes couldn’t cut weight correctly and was hospitalized. She wanted to cut weight and recover rapidly to have the advantage. The end result, everything went wrong. Even though she was medically cleared to fight, she backed out. This fight was originally offered to take place in April and she would not accept then. I did my part and am very upset that I can’t fight for the title today on this great event. I am even more upset for all my dear fans who support me every time throughout the world and to those who traveled to see me fight in Las Vegas live. I feel frustrated about what happened but I won’t relax, will not put down energy in my preparation, and will wait until the UFC gives us another date for fight. #UFC #teamBullet

Nunes and Shevchenko are now rumored to be heading to UFC 215 per UFC President Dana White. UFC 214 already boasts 3 title fights which is likely the reasoning behind moving the fight to September 9th in Edmonton. A heavyweight bout between Junior dos Santos and Francis Ngannou and a featherweight tilt between Gilbert Melendez and Jeremy Stephens are among the fights that have been booked for that card thus far.