Aspen Ladd steps up to replace injured Holly Holm at UFC Fight Night 195 on October 16

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By Tom Ward

Published Oct 7, 2021

Aspen Ladd will fight Norma Dumont as UFC Fight Night 195's main event on October 16

Second time's the charm for Aspen Ladd.

Last week, Ladd was preparing to fight Macy Chiasson in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 2. However, late Friday afternoon the fight was pulled from Saturday's card at the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Clark County, after Ladd missed weight by a pound on her second attempt.

Ladd was left unsure wondering where her next fight was going to come from until Holly Holm pulled out of her UFC Fight Night 195 fight against Norma Dumont due to a knee injury. MMA journalist Ariel Helwani first reported the news.

Once that news broke, the UFC turned to Ladd to try to persuade her to fight Dumont on ten days' notice, and after several hours of negotiations, the promotion has settled on Ladd vs. Dumont at 145 pounds next Saturday night in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN on Thursday. Both fighters have verbally agreed to the bout, per the report.

The fight will mark Ladd's featherweight debut. She has previously campaigned at bantamweight and flyweight. On Friday, she took to social media to inform her followers that it was 'all my fault' that her original fight got cancelled, and she explained the reasonings behind it.

"Fight is off. Again. All my fault. Straight up started my period 2 days back and made this cut absolutely miserable. Did the best I could, hit 137, the scale situation was a mess because the last thing I wanted was to bleed in front of the media. The fight wasn’t pulled, my opponent then decided she would rather not go through with it, as is her right. I’m going to get slammed regardless, so let it begin."

Ladd (9-1) hasn't won a fight since a third-round knockout over Yana Kunitskaya in December 2019, having torn both her ACL and MCL during training.

Ladd started as 3-0 in the UFC with consecutive victories over Lina Länsberg, Tonya Evinger and Sijara Eubanks before suffering the only loss of her professional career against Germaine de Randamie in July 2019.

Dumont (6-1) finally gets to show the world what she can do after a closely-fought split-decision win over Felicia Spencer this past May, bouncing back into the winning column with two wins on the trot after a knockout defeat from Megan Anderson.

UFC Fight Night 195 takes place on October 16 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Ladd vs. Dumont is expected to serve as the main event.

This article will be updated.