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Amanda Nunes falls ill, UFC 213 title rematch canceled

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, being interviewed Friday at the weigh-in by Joe Rogan, fell ill and was pulled from her scheduled bout Saturday against Valentina Shevchenko. (Getty Images)
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, being interviewed Friday at the weigh-in by Joe Rogan, fell ill and was pulled from her scheduled bout Saturday against Valentina Shevchenko. (Getty Images)

An interim middleweight title fight between Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero is the new main event of UFC 213 after women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes fell ill, forcing her title defense against No. 1 contender Valentina Shevchenko to be postponed.

Nunes had been under the weather much of the week and was hospitalized early Saturday. It was quickly determined she was not fit to fight.

The UFC released a statement, which includes information about refunds:

Due to illness, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has been removed from her UFC 213 title defense against Valentina Shevchenko.

UFC 213, which is now headlined by the interim UFC middleweight championship bout between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker, will proceed as scheduled with 11 bouts at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Moving to the Pay-Per-View main card is the bantamweight bout between Rob Font and Douglas Silva de Andrade.

With the removal of Nunes vs. Shevchenko, customers may request a full refund of purchased tickets at point of sale.

Nunes had been slated to headline her third consecutive card at T-Mobile. She won the title at UFC 200 last July by submitting Miesha Tate, then successfully defended it at UFC 207 by knocking out Ronda Rousey.

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