Nina Ansaroff vs. Rose Namajunas pulled from UFC 187 after Ansaroff contracts flu
A women's strawweight bout between Nina Ansaroff and Rose Namajunas has been pulled from UFC 187 after Ansaroff contracted the flu, the promotion announced on Saturday.
"I feel just horrible about this," Ansaroff said in a statement, according to Fox Sports' Elias Cepeda.
"If it was up to me, I'd definitely fight. I was willing to fight, of course, with or without the flu because I'm a fighter. But this is out of my control, and I just hope it's rescheduled as soon as possible."
Ansaroff tipped the scales four pounds heavy during weigh-ins on Friday, an apparent side effect of the flu virus.
"As she started cutting weight, Nina was already sick. Sometimes you can bounce back, push through and it is not a problem," her manager, former UFC fighter Charles McCarthy said.
"So, we said, 'let's see what you can do and how you're feeling.' We gave her the right fuel and monitored her. As she started cutting weight, 20-30 minutes in, her blood pressure started getting low and she felt worse. Physiologically, she was not doing well. So, we stopped her from doing her workout and tried other ways to cut weight that would put less pressure on her. No matter what she did, she got worse, however. Her body was actually doing what it is supposed to do, and went into self-protecting mode where it holds onto everything. She began gaining weight literally just sitting there. So we stopped the weight cut.
"It just doesn't make sense to push her to the point where it damages her body more, and damages her career."