Former UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie has been forced to pull out of her bout on the UFC Fight Night 115 card, which is scheduled to take place on September 2. De Randamie was scheduled to fight Marion Reneau in the co-main event at Ahoy Rotterdam in the Netherlands prior to the main event featuring heavyweights Stefan Struve and Alexander Volkov.
MMA Junkie confirmed with UFC officials that de Randamie was forced to pull out of the contest due to suffering an injury.
De Randamie released a statement on her injury on social media.
Germaine de Randamie explains why she has withdrawn from #UFCRotterdam pic.twitter.com/q1DRdwdkvA
— Nicole Bosco (@NikBos) August 25, 2017
The promotion is looking to find Reneau a new opponent to replace de Randamie.
This would have been Germaine de Randamie’s first fight since she won the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight title. “The Iron Lady” fought former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm at UFC 208, winning a controversial unanimous decision victory after five rounds of competition.
The title was then stripped from De Randamie a few months after winning the belt when she refused to fight the top contender Cris Cyborg, citing her previous failed drug test as the reason. With Cyborg being active in the USADA testing pool and passing her drug screenings, the UFC stripped de Randamie of the belt and had Cyborg fight Tonya Evinger for the vacant title at UFC 214, which Cyborg won in the third round by TKO.
Meanwhile, Marion Reneau will be looking to book a replacement opponent and solidify a win coming off a draw against Bethe Correia, which took place at UFC Fight Night 106 in March.
Who would you like to see step in as a replacement to take on Marion Reneau in the Octagon at UFC Fight Night 115? Let’s get some names in the comments!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/25/2017.