A win over Norma Dumont gets her back in the conversation at least, whether it’s at bantamweight or featherweight.īut Dumont is no pushover. She has the talent to challenge for the bantamweight title and it’s only issues outside of competition that have slowed her. It’s understandable that Ladd is eager to get back into the octagon as soon as possible after being inactive since December 2019. ET, followed by a five-fight main card on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. The five-fight preliminary card begins on ESPN+ at 4:30 p.m. How’s all that for a look on the bright side? By the way, Godinez is also making history with the quickest turnaround ever for a UFC fighter, having just competed and won this past Saturday. 15-ranked flyweight Sijara Eubanks, but she was a late scratch this week and has since been replaced by strawweight Lupita Godinez. The card did initially feature one fighter in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings, No. 3 at bantamweight in the UFC’s rankings, but is fighting at featherweight. History is being made! As far as we can tell, this is the first time since the UFC introduced its rankings that a card features no ranked fighters competing in their assigned division.Jordan Wright falling through on Friday, they actually have more then all of the other fighters now (66 combined UFC bouts). As pointed out by TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter, Arlovski and Miller’s 72 UFC appearances heading into Saturday were almost as much as the rest of the card combined with Julian Marquez vs. 36, two behind Miller, whose 38th appearance is a promotional record. Andrei Arlovski and Jim Miller are still cooking! That’s right, the UFC’s leaders in heavyweight and lightweight appearances respectively both have fights on the main card.With an extra 10 pounds to play around with, Ladd made weight comfortably on Friday and now she has an opportunity to remind us why she’s been a top prospect since day one. Ladd is back! The 26-year-old has not competed in almost two years, mostly due to a knee injury but also because of struggles with the scale.However, should Amanda Nunes successfully defend her bantamweight title against Julianna Pena, and decide she wants to return to action soon, she could defend the featherweight title against the winner of Saturday’s main event.īut let’s focus on the positives, of which there are several beyond just the chance for fighters light on recognition and UFC experience to gain some shine. The de facto main event featuring Aspen Ladd and Norma Dumont-thrown together following the injury withdrawal of Holly Holm-could actually produce a UFC title challenger, though it would be in the featherweight division that currently does not even have official rankings. There’s no sugarcoating it: UFC Vegas 40 is a weak card, at least in terms of name recognition and contender implications.Īctually, that’s not entirely true.