Holly Holm's fight vs. Irene Aldana could go on in October. Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Holly Holm vs. Irene Aldana scratched from Aug. 1 show

By Zac Wassink | Last updated Jul 22, 2020 4:08 PM ET

The UFC was forced to make new plans for the main event of its Aug. 1 return to Las Vegas following several shows at the Fight Island location on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.

On Wednesday, UFC boss Dana White confirmed that next weekend's main event of Holly Holm versus Irene Aldana is off. Instead, the middleweight bout between Derek Brunson (20-7-0) and Edmen Shahbazyan (11-0-0) was bumped to the headline portion of the card.

Former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, who lost that title to Holm in November 2015, helped White announce the change via Twitter (warning: some inappropriate language is used in the video):

.@RondaRousey breaks @DerekBrunson vs @edmenshahbazyan Sat. August 1st LIVE on @espn+ pic.twitter.com/H7KNK2pvWO
— danawhite (@danawhite) July 22, 2020

Shahbazyan is co-managed by Rousey.

ESPN's Ariel Helwani reported Aldana was forced to withdraw from the Aug. 1 event held at the UFC Apex, and that the UFC could rebook Aldana-Holm for Oct. 5. Helwani did not provide a reason for Aldana's exit from next weekend's show.

Zac Wassink

Zac Wassink is a longtime sports news writer and PFWA member who began his career in 2006 and has had his work featured on Yardbarker, MSN, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. He is also a football and futbol aficionado who is probably yelling about Tottenham Hotspur at the moment and who chanted for Matt Harvey to start the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field. You can find him on X at @ZacWassink

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