LAS VEGAS – When she last stepped foot into the octagon 19 months ago, Aspen Ladd appeared destined to challenge for a UFC title in the very near future. But following a canceled bout with Julianna Pena and then a knee surgery that forced her to the sidelines for the better part of a year, Ladd says she’s focused only on the immediate task at hand.
“It almost feels surreal to finally be back after so much and so long,” Ladd told MMA Junkie at a media day at the UFC Apex.
Ladd (9-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) makes her long-awaited return to the cage at Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 27, where she faces Macy Chiasson (7-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) at the UFC Apex. The bout serves as the co-main event of the card, which airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+.
She admits the journey back to the cage was more difficult than she initially envisioned.
“Before surgery, you think, ‘I’m going to be back the second I can, as soon as I can possibly be cleared,’” Ladd said. “When you’re actually going through it and after, it’s like, ‘I feel like I’m going back when it’s stable and I never have to do this again.’ So (it was) a lot harder than you would think going into it.”
Ladd said her coach, Jim West, was instrumental in forcing her to be patient in recovery and not rush back to action. Once she was ready, though, Ladd said she asked for the best opponent available, which ended up being Chiasson.
“There was a couple of opponents before her, and one of them … I could not be ready for a certain date, and she wanted to fight sooner, so you can definitely respect that,” Ladd said. “However, she hasn’t fought since then, so I don’t know if she got hurt or what. Then we were angling for the Pena fight because we were supposed to fight her twice before I got hurt, but we all know what happened with that one. So after that, it was like, ‘Who in the top 10 doesn’t have a dance partner and will want to basically throw down?’ and Macy came up. It was like, ‘All right, let’s do this.’”
While Chiasson expressed some frustration in feeling that Ladd may have hand-picked her for this fight in hopes of getting an easier test in her return, the 26-year-old Ladd said that’s not the case.
“She’s legit; she’s going to be a tough opponent,” Ladd said. “I think she’s willing to engage everywhere. I think she’ll strike. She’ll grapple. She’ll clinch, and she’s pretty good at all of it, so I think she’s not afraid to throw down in any of the different facets of MMA.”
Ladd enters the contest sitting at No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie women’s bantamweight rankings and is still very much a part of the title picture in the division. But with so much time away, Ladd said she can’t think about things like rankings and title shots at the moment. There’s business to be handled on Saturday night.
“Whenever I have a fight, that’s end of the road, end of the line, nothing exists beyond it,” Ladd said. “I’m not thinking past Saturday night right now.”
But make no mistake about her readiness for whatever comes next Ladd said. She may have been sidelined for 19 months, but the delays are now over.
“If I wasn’t 110 percent ready to be back right now, if I had any question in my mind, I wouldn’t be back,” Ladd said.
To hear the full interview with Ladd, check out the video above.
Loading…
Aspen Ladd says recovery ‘a lot harder’ than expected, not looking past UFC on ESPN 27