Bethe Correia won’t be ready for the start of 2018 after all.
On Wednesday, the one-time women’s bantamweight title contender shared a message on Instagram explaining that an accident forced her to undergo emergency surgery, along with a picture of herself in the hospital. Correia also revealed that she was expecting to fight Irene Aldana at a UFC show in January, though that fight had not been officially announced:
Correia’s manager Wallid Ismail told MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz that the fighter suffered an eye injury in training, and he does not expect her to resume preparations before the year is through.
In her post, Correia wrote that she hopes to be able to fight Aldana in “the first semester of 2018.” She last competed at a UFC Fight Night event on June 17 in Kallang, Singapore, losing to Holly Holm by third-round knockout.