Paige VanZant injured, UFC 216 bout against Jessica Eye scrapped

UFC 216’s PPV card just took a hit with the loss of one of the promotion’s first women flyweight bouts.

Fans who were already turning their nose up at UFC 216 may have just found another reason to be less excited for the event. One of the first – following 2016’s Joanne Calderwood vs. Valerie Letourneau fight – women’s flyweight bouts in UFC promotional history has just been pulled from the card. Paige VanZant was expected to move up from 115 lbs and meet Jessica Eye (herself moving down from 135 lbs) on the Las Vegas fight card.

Eye hinted that trouble might be on the horizon in a post on social media early Monday, September 25th.

Other sources soon confirmed, including the UFC itself. MMA Fighting reports that VanZant suffered an “intervertebral disc injury” while grappling and has had to stop training for several weeks, per-doctor’s instruction, as a result. Apparently, due to the injury, the UFC 216 fight card will go ahead with 12 bouts, with no replacement to fight Eye expected.

The PPV, which goes down on October 7th, is expected to be headlined by an interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee. A flyweight title bout between Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg is scheduled for the co-main event. The Johnson/Borg fight was originally scheduled to headline UFC 215, before Borg fell ill during fight week. A potential win would see Johnson breaking the all-time title defense record he currently shares with Anderson Silva.