Former TUF 26 champion and the first ever UFC women’s flyweight champion Nicco Montano has been released by the UFC, with her latest fight cancellation believed to be the final straw for the promotion.
The 32-year-old Montano had been scheduled to fight Wu Yanan at UFC On ESPN 28 last weekend, but she came in a whopping 7lbs over the bantamweight limit and as such the bout had to be cancelled.
This has become a common trend for Montano during her UFC run, starting with being stripped of her title back in 2018 after a botched weight cut prior to the weigh-ins for her fight against Valentina Shevchenko led to her being hospitalized.
In total eight of Montano’s UFC’s have been cancelled over the past four years, with six of them being due to her and her camp for a variety of reasons, including injuries and Covid-19 in addition to three from weight-cutting across two different divisons.
Montano’s release from the UFC had been foreshadowed earlier in the day when Dana White questioned whether MMA was the right sport for her during an interview.
“I don’t know off the top of my head, but over three or four of her fights have been canceled,” White had told MMAJunkie. “I think no matter what weight class you put her at, she seems to have a hard time making weight. This might not be the sport for her.”
Despite her lengthy spell in the UFC, Montano leaves having recorded just two fights, a win and a loss, since December of 2017, resulting in a 4-3 career record overall to date.
