Former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas suffered a major setback that led to her withdrawal from the now-defunct UFC 249 fight card.
On Wednesday, multiple reports claimed ‘Thug Rose’ has dropped out of her rematch with Jessica Andrade in the co-main event of the said fight card ‘for undisclosed reasons.’
It was a massive blow to the troubled UFC 249 card, who previously lost one of its main event stars in Khabib Nurmagomedov due to travel restrictions in Russia.
It wasn’t confirmed whether the strawweight fight will be removed from the line up or the promotion will find a replacement for Andrade.
Namajunas, who has been in the sidelines for almost a year, was looking to bounce back from her knockout loss to the Brazilian fighter – a defeat that ended a three-fight winning streak including back-to-back wins against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in two title bouts.
Personal Tragedy
On Thursday, Namajunas’ manager, Brian Butler-Au, revealed that the former champion lost two of her family members to coronavirus disease, which led to the withdrawal.
“Immediate release: @rosenamajunas withdrew from UFC 249 due to 2 deaths in the family related to the Coronavirus. Her hopes are to return to the Octagon as soon as possible but for now we ask for people to respect their privacy during this time.”
As of April 8, the number of confirmed cases in the United States has soared to 429,052 – the highest in the world – with 14,695 deaths, the second most in the world after Italy.
With the severity of the pandemic, the Nevada-based promotion has decided to cancel the UFC 249 pay-per-view event and its upcoming shows, as per Dana White’s announcement.
Standing Down
White confirmed on Thursday that the April 18 card will no longer happen after the UFC’s broadcast partner, ESPN, urged the promotion not to stage the event.
“Today we got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney and the highest level of ESPN,” the UFC president said.
“One thing that I’ve said since we’ve started our relationship and partnership with ESPN is that it’s been an incredible one. It’s been an amazing partnership.”
“ESPN has been very, very good to us, and the powers that be there asked me to stand down and not do this event next Saturday.”
“We will be the first sport back.”
“‘Fight Island’ is real. It’s a real thing. The infrastructure’s being built right now, and that’s really going to happen and it will be on ESPN.”
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Rose Namajunas and YouTube/ MMA Junkie)