Ex-champ Nicco Montano pulled from upcoming fight against Karol Rosa at UFC Vegas 18, Joselyne Edwards steps in

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Former flyweight champion Nicco Montano has been pulled from her upcoming fight against Karol Rosa on Feb. 6 at UFC Vegas 18.

Multiple sources confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Tuesday, revealing that Joselyne Edwards will now fill in to face Rosa on short notice. Milenio first reported the change.

According to sources, Montano was actually pulled from the fight by a neurologist as part of her pre-fight medical tests required to compete. The UFC’s first ever flyweight champion suffered injuries from a car accident after she was rear-ended by another driver.

Unfortunately, Montano was still having eye-tracking issues as a result of a lingering concussion from the car accident that prevented her from being cleared to compete.

She has now been sidelined for an additional 12 weeks from the exam before she’s allowed to fight again.

Montano hasn’t fought since July 2019 when she suffered a decision loss to Julianna Pena in her first fight back in nearly two years after becoming UFC flyweight champion.

Prior to this setback, Montano was previously scheduled to compete this past August but her coach John Wood contracted COVID-19, which forced the UFC to pull her from the card. Montano then tested positive for the coronavirus, which once again forced the promotion to move the date of her fight against Julia Avila.

At that point, Montano was unable to compete due to travel restrictions that prevented her from making the trip to Abu Dhabi with the event scheduled as part of a series of shows on Fight Island.

Now it appears Montano will have to wait three more months before booking another fight as she awaits clearance from her doctors after the injuries sustained in the car accident.

Rosa (13-3) won back to back fights in the UFC, defeating Lara Procopio and Vanessa Melo via decision, while Edwards (10-2) gets a quick turnaround after defeating Wu Yanan via decision in her octagon debut in January.

The upcoming UFC Vegas 18 card will be headlined by a heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Alexander Volkov with a bantamweight showdown pitting Cory Sandhagen against Frankie Edgar in the co-main event.