Nicco Montano found out about her stripping of the title through Instagram

What’s next for the former UFC flyweight Nicco Montano in the UFC? That remains to be seen but what we do know is that it won’t be a title fight.

Montano would become the inaugural 125-pound UFC champion by winning her way through season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter as the No. 14 seed, shocking everyone with her success.

In the finals, she would defeat the revitalized veteran in Roxanne Modaferri to be crowned the champion.

Immediately after, it was expected that her first title defense would come against former bantamweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko. And that was indeed the plan as the two were set to meet at last Saturday’s UFC 228.

Unfortunately, Montano would be hospitalized during her weight cut thus forcing her from the bout and costing her her championship.

Montano spoke on The MMA Hour today about the situation and how she found out that she wasn’t the champion anymore.

“I was running through Instagram and I saw an interview with Dana White saying the title has been stripped.  I was getting out of the hospital and I was like, ‘Alrighty then.’

It was definitely pretty sad, it was disheartening. I didn’t want to have anything to do with the UFC for a bit after. My short-tempered self-was like, ‘F’ this. You just almost died for a company that doesn’t even call you to make sure you’re alive. Personally, it was kind of just like, well screw you.

On the business level, if I could see it from a different perspective, I can see what they have to do — what they feel like they have to do. But just the inconsistencies with a bunch of things like this is still pretty disheartening in terms of what’s gonna happen with my career. Am I gonna want to stay in the UFC? I kind of want to stay in the UFC just to fight Valentina eventually. But just like with anything else, what else is the motivation? What else is the motivator?”

UFC president Dana White has made it clear that Shevchenko will be competing for the now vacant title sometime in the near future and it’s a very safe bet that that won’t be against Montano.

“I do believe it’s unfair I believe it’s unfair the way that it was done, with me finding out on Instagram. And also the way that their inconsistencies are. They’ve made so many interim belts, but this one was just stripped due to health precautions. There were so many interim belts that were made due to health precautions, due to injuries. And there’s just no consistency. So what’s there to rely on?”

on 9/10/2018