Dana White won't give champ Amanda Nunes another main event after UFC 213 withdrawal

LAS VEGAS – UFC President Dana White has lost faith in women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes after her late-notice withdrawal on the day of Saturday’s UFC 213 event, he said.

“I won’t main event that title again,” he told MMAjunkie following the pay-per-view at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

White called Nunes’ withdrawal “90 percent mental and maybe 10 percent physical” and said he didn’t consider stripping her of the title because she had no history of last-minute withdrawals. But he didn’t pay her any part of her scheduled UFC 213 purse, and he indicated he won’t take another risk on her as as headliner.

“These situations arise all the time,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a situation like today, though, where she was physically capable of fighting.”

Nunes’ (14-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) withdrawal from a fight with Valentina Shevchenko (14-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) was the latest woe for the UFC’s annual International Fight Week, which has lost its originally scheduled main events for the past three years.

After a light heavyweight title unifier in 2016 between then-interim champ Jon Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) and champ Daniel Cormier (19-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) was scratched when an anti-doping violation cost Jones his spot on UFC 200, White vowed never to let Jones headline an event. He later changed his mind, waiting out Jones’ suspension to book the fight for this month’s UFC 214.

The first sign of trouble in Nunes’ case, according to White, came on Friday just prior to the event’s ceremonial weigh-ins.

“I got a call that (Nunes) wasn’t feeling well and that it was questionable whether she was going to show up to the ceremonials, because the doctor needed to see her and they needed to find out what was going on with her,” White said. “She does them. Everything’s good. This morning I wake up, and I hear that she’s not feeling well again – no, she’s not feeling well again, and she’s probably not going to fight.

“I asked the doctors what was wrong with her. She was medically cleared. She was physically OK. They found nothing wrong with her. But she didn’t feel right.”

White clarified that Nunes didn’t specifically refuse to fight, but instead said, “I don’t feel right. I don’t feel good.”

He said the UFC is working on rebooking the fight for UFC 215, which takes place Sept. 9 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

During the UFC 213 broadcast, Nunes made her first public statement about her withdrawal. Short on details about what happened, she wrote, “Sorry to all my true fans. The fight will be rescheduled and I will be back at 100 (percent).”

For more on UFC 213, check out the UFC Events section of the site.