Sijara Eubanks back on the UFC 230 fight card at MSG
Sijara Eubanks has had an interesting 24 hours. She went from being the main event in a title fight at next month’s UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden to not even being on the fight card.
Twitter rants ensued as the main event came to light: Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier will defend his title against Derrick Lewis.
“This is my life you’re playing with,” Eubanks tweeted at UFC president Dana White and matchmaker Mick Maynard.
“Put me under card. Put me co main. I don’t care. But put me in for the Flyweight title shot! @danawhite @Mickmaynard2 IVE EARNED MY SHOT. THIS IS MY TIME. Quit running this thing like a circus,” she added.
Now, Eubanks is back on the card. Eubanks will face Roxane Modafferi in a flyweight bout at UFC 230 on Nov. 3, a UFC official said Wednesday.
Eubanks was supposed to face Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant flyweight title at UFC 230. That all changed Tuesday evening. Instead, Shevchenko will face Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the former strawweight champion, in December at UFC 231 in Toronto, as originally planned.
Eubanks (4-2, 1-0) last fought in June and won a unanimous decision over Lauren Murphy. She reached the final on Season 26 of "The Ultimate Fighter" and was supposed to face Nicco Montana for the inaugural title. But, weight-cutting issues forced Eubanks out of the fight, and Modafferi (22-15) took her spot and lost to Montana. Eubanks had beaten Modafferi in the "TUF" semifinals by unanimous decision.
Modafferi last fought in July and stopped Barb Honchak in the second round.
Mark La Monica is a deputy sports editor at Newsday. He also covers mixed martial arts.
