Women’s bantamweight No.1 contender Germaine de Randamie is out of her UFC 268 fight with Irene Aldana on November 6th at Madison Square Garden in New York City due to an undisclosed injury.
It’s already been almost a year since the 37-year-old de Randamie last stepped into the Octagon, claiming a third round rear-naked choke victory over Julianna Pena – the first submission win of the decorated striker’s career.
Before that GDR had failed to take the 135lb title from Amanda Nunes, losing out by unanimous decision, but she had been on a five-fight winning streak beforehand, defeating the likes of Aspen Ladd, Holly Holm and Raquel Pennington along the way, which is partly why she still maintains the No.1 contender spot on the rankings.
As for Aldana, she is currently ranked at No.4 in the division after picking up a first round TKO victory against Yana Kunitskaya in July.
Before that Aldana had lost to Holly Holm by unanimous decision, but she’s won six of her last eight fights, with her other notable victories during that spell coming against the likes of Ketlen Vieira, Vanessa Melo and Bethe Correia.
As things stand the UFC plans to keep Aldana on the UFC 268 card against a new opponent, for a show that will be headlined by a welterweight title rematch between Kamara Usman and Colby Covington, while at strawweight another major title rematch will see current champion Rose Namajunas locking horns for a second time with Zhang Weili.
