Aspen Ladd out of UFC San Diego bout with Sara McMann

Aspen Ladd will not be fighting at UFC San Diego.

Ladd has been forced out of her scheduled matchup against Sara McMann later this month after contracting COVID-19, sources confirmed to MMA Fighting on Monday. The promotion is looking into possible replacements for Ladd, or potentially at rescheduling the bout for a later date, but nothing has been secured at this time.

The bout was an important one for Ladd. Though she is still ranked in the UFC’s top 10 at bantamweight, Ladd has fallen on tough times recently, losing three of her previous four after starting her career a perfect 8-0. On top of that, Ladd has repeatedly had issues with the scale, even making a brief sojourn to featherweight before dropping back down to 135 pounds for her most recent fight, a decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 273.

This is the second time Ladd has withdrawn from a scheduled fight with McMann. The two were originally scheduled to fight at UFC Vegas 4 back in 2020, but Ladd was forced out of the event after tearing both her ACL and MCL.

UFC San Diego takes place Aug. 13 at the Pechanga Arena, and will be headlined by a bantamweight bout between Marlon Vera and former two-time champion Dominick Cruz.

Damon Martin and Mike Heck contributed to this report.