Aspen Ladd details knee injury; says all roads lead to Amanda Nunes, at 135 or 145 pounds

Aspen Ladd has suffered a major setback in her career, but is determined to bounce back stronger.

Ladd (9-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who was scheduled to face Sara McMann this Saturday at UFC on ESPN 12, suffered a torn ACL and MCL, which forced her to withdraw from her bout.

Speaking to MMA Junkie, Ladd explained how she injured her knee two weeks out from her fight, and admitted she was hoping to battle through it, but was ultimately advised against it due to the severity of the injury.

“It was my last hard day of training, last sparring session,” recalled Ladd. “It was a wrestling-type situation and then just my foot got caught and the rest of my body turned, heard a loud pop. That was a week before I got diagnosed with what it was. So during that week, I had still planned to fight. Don’t get me wrong, it hurt, but it was like, ‘Eh, my weight is really good, it just hurts, I can work through this,’ and that was the plan.”

After suffering her first career pro loss to Germaine de Randamie last July, Ladd rebounded with a third-round finish of Yana Kunitskaya at UFC on ESPN 7 in December.

She was lined up for big things when she was matched up with fellow top contender Julianna Pena in March before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, then she was booked to face former UFC bantamweight title challenger McMann. But now Ladd may be looking at approximately nine months on the sidelines before she can return to action at full fitness.

As soon as she’s cleared to fight, Ladd isn’t planning on wasting any time.

“I want to fight as soon as I possibly can and I’m gonna do whatever it takes to do that,” Ladd said. “But right now it’s figuring out what the course of action in as far as how to address the injury and come back from it as soon as possible.”

“When I do get back, and hopefully it’s sooner rather than later, I want to line them up. No more breaks, no more five, four months. I want to just go.”

Though she’s on the verge of title contention at bantamweight, Ladd revealed she’s open to options at featherweight as well, given that both roads lead to UFC two-division champion Amanda Nunes.

“The end of the road is the same in both divisions and a lot of the 35ers, if you just take out the water cut, (are) natural 45’s,” Ladd said. “I would have no problem fighting both divisions.”