Amanda Nunes-Valentina Shevchenko off, Yoel Romero-Robert Whittaker now UFC 213 main event

UFC 213 has lost its main event on fight day.

As if UFC 213 hadn’t suffered enough with the postponement of Donald Cerrone vs. Robbie Lawler, as well as the cancellation of the men’s bantamweight title fight between Cody Garbrandt and T.J. Dillashaw, Saturday night’s main event is in serious danger of being scrapped.

Reigning women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes is currently hospitalized, according to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani. The odds of Nunes being able to defend her title tonight against Valentina Shevchenko are currently looking slim.

If the main event is off, UFC 213’s new headliner will be the interim middleweight title bout between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker. Of course, this fight was booked to replace Garbrandt-Dillashaw, and after plans to have Michael Bisping-Georges St-Pierre in the summer also collapsed. It’d also be the third straight year that the UFC’s International Fight Week PPV will have lost its original main event. UFC 200 obviously got double dinged with Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor 2, as well as the last-minute scrapping of Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones 2.

Bloody Elbow will update this post with more information as it becomes available, including an official UFC statement.

UPDATE: It’s been confirmed by Dana White that Nunes is off the card. Romero vs. Whittaker is the main event. Here’s the UFC’s statement:

"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."