Coach: Ankle Injury Booted ‘Lioness’ From UFC 249

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When Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) finally found a location for the UFC 249 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which was recently booked for Sat., May 9, 2020 inside VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, it was expected to feature the women’s bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Felicia Spencer.

After all, “Lioness” had already agreed to defend her 135-pound strap against “FeeNom” at the since-postponed UFC 250 event in Brazil, also on May 9, so the only thing that changed was the venue. In addition, Nunes already resides in the United States, making the trip even easier.

But not long after the UFC 249 fight card went public, Nunes told the combat sports community that she was no longer competing because she wanted to wait for the coronavirus pandemic to blow over before committing to fight camp.

Her coach says otherwise.

“Amanda had a small ankle injury, she preferred to stop and treat, rather than running, because we were at that stage where we didn’t know what would happen,” Conan Silveira told Combate (via BJPenn.com). “We didn’t know if it would be May 9, where it was going to be, we had several questions and few answers. In the training we were doing before we stopped, she got hurt and we didn’t want to force it. We prefer to stop and treat, for her to be ready, as she always has been, to return as soon as possible.”

Nunes, as we’ve seen, rarely fights injured.

Not surprisingly, Spencer was disappointed by the news and felt a bit blindsided by the champ’s revelation, especially considering “FeeNom” had already started training camp for what is expected to be the most difficult fight of her mixed martial arts (MMA) career.

The latest reports put this 135-pound showdown somewhere in late June or early July.