Women’s MMAJoanne Wood Out, Miranda Maverick In Against Priscila Cachoeira at UFC 291
The Ultimate Fighting Championship was quick to keep its upcoming pay-per-view lineup to a lucky 13 fights.
According to her Instagram on Thursday, Joanne Wood has been forced out of her flyweight fight at UFC 291 against Priscila Cachoeira (12-4). In her place, as first reported by MMA Fighting, is Miranda Maverick (11-5). Maverick confirmed this news of this July 29 pairing shortly after it broke on Thursday, and she will be taking this bout on a little over two weeks’ notice.
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“Gutted to find out that I won’t be fighting July 29th,” Wood wrote on her Instagram page. “It is what it is and I’m going to try not dwell on this as it was out of my control. I invested and done everything I could and was ready for what was maybe going to be my last fight. I loved the extra altitude training that I went all in on to make sure I was best prepared and was feeling great with no injuries. If only fight camps went on your record (and you got paid for them) I’m pretty sure I’m in the triple digits by now.”
Maverick will be looking to put a recent decision defeat to Jasmine Jasudavicius behind her when she steps up on late notice. The loss to the Canadian put an end to a two-fight win streak, where she tapped out Sabina Mazo and prevailed on the scorecards over Shanna Young to complete a solid 2022 campaign. Before that, she dropped two of three in 2021 against Maycee Barber and Erin Blanchfield, although in the former, every scoring media member believed Maverick had done enough to get the nod over Barber.
Remaining in place for her first appearance of the year, Brazil’s Cachoeira is aiming to rack up another win to boost her streak to three straight. When she came to the promotion back in 2018, “Zombie Girl” lost three times, and her status on the roster was in question. Since then, she has strung together four victories in five outings, with that lone loss a submission setback to Gillian Robertson that saw her gouge the eyes of her opponent repeatedly before tapping out. Most recently, Cachoeira pounded out Ariane Lipski back in August 2022.
UFC 291 will play out at the Vivant Arena in Salt Lake City on July 29. In a rarity for the promotion, no official championship belt will be on the line throughout this pay-per-view attraction. To counter this, the UFC will be offering the victor of Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje the “vacant BMF belt” which was previously held by Jorge Masvidal after beating Nate Diaz in 2019. The co-featured matchup comes at 205 pounds, as former champ Jan Blachowicz welcomes ex-middleweight king Alex Pereira to a new weight class.
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