UFC Phoenix Loses Bout At Last Minute

PennWEighIned

Tonight’s (Sun., February 17, 2019) UFC on ESPN 1 from the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona, has lost a fight at the last minute.

ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported that the women’s strawweight bout between former title contender Jessica Penne and Jodie Esquibel has been called off. While Penne missed weight by two pounds yesterday, it’s unclear if that is why the fight has been called:

Interestingly enough, Helwani revealed that the bout being removed would affect the previous plans of the main card fight between Kron Gracie and Alex Caceres being the 5,000th fight in UFC history:

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Penne apparently withdrew this morning:

Helwani said sources told him she was injured:

Finally, word came that Penne had severely sprained her ankle warming up. It had nothing to do with cutting weight:

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Penne was in need of a strong performance in order to keep her position on the UFC roster. The former Invicta atomweight champion has lost three straight bouts. She was last seen losing a decision to Danielle Taylor at April 2017’s Swanson vs. Lobov.

She was fined 20 percent for missing the weight but the bout was expected to proceed otherwise as planned. Veteran Esquibel needed to fight and emerge victorious too. She has lost her last two bouts to Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Jessica Aguilar.

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UFC Phoenix will now proceed with 12 fights total as a result of Penne vs. Esquibel being called.