UFC Sacramento: Aspen Ladd Outlines Why She’s Not Looking Past Saturday to Title Shot

Sine Germaine de Randamie is ranked #1 in the UFC’s women’s bantamweight division, and Aspen Ladd is #4, the expectation is their fight tomorrow is a title shot eliminator. But, recently Ladd outlined why she’s just focused on winning at UFC Sacramento, rather than what may or may not be on the line.

The 24-year-old Ladd (8-0) has been booked for a fight with the former featherweight champ, after going 3-0 in the Octagon to date. De Randamie (8-3), meanwhile, has won four straight fights now since she lost to the current champ-champ Nunes in 2013.

Well, as noted above, Saturday’s main event is expected to forward the winner to a scrap with Nunes. But, while discussing what could be next recently, Ladd said this (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“I haven’t really considered anything past this Saturday,” Ladd said. “Germaine is the No. 1 contender so there’s certain indications there, but at the same time, 135 is a very strange division right now. We have a lot of higher-ranked women coming back from pregnancy or injury, we have a two-division champ who wants to go back and forth, so who knows where it’s going to go.”

Makes sense. In a more ordinary situation, chances are de Randamie – Ladd would be a guaranteed, title shot eliminator. But, there’s lots going on. Further, because Nunes just defended the 135 title last weekend by taking out Holly Holm, that belt probably won’t be on the line again until next Q1 or Q2 in 2020.

Here is the complete line-up for UFC Sacramento (via MMA Mania).

UFC Fight Night 155 Main Card on ESPN+ (8 p.m. ET)

135 lbs.: Germaine de Randamie vs. Aspen Ladd
135 lbs.: Urijah Faber vs. Ricky Simon
145 lbs.: Mirsad Bektic vs. Josh Emmett
155 lbs.: Beneil Dariush vs. Drakkar Klose
185 lbs.: Karl Roberson vs. John Phillips
185 lbs.: Cezar Ferreira vs. Marvin Vettori

UFC Fight Night 155 Prelims on ESPN+ (5 p.m. ET)
205 lbs.: Mike Rodriguez vs. John Allan
145 lbs.: Andre Fili vs. Sheymon Moraes
135 lbs.: Nicco Montano vs. Julianna Pena
145 lbs.: Darren Elkins vs. Ryan Hall
135 lbs.: Jonathan Martinez vs. Liu Pingyuan
115 lbs.: Livinha Souza vs. Brianna Van Buren
135 lbs.: Martin Day vs. Benito Lopez