The UFC’s Bad Luck With Canada and the Good Fortune of Amanda Nunes

Once again, a UFC card this year has been disrupted at the last minute. Ray Borg had to pull out of his fight with Demetrious Johnson, the original main event is gone and Amanda Nunes gets bumped up to headline. The world is a strange place, readers. There is a pattern that emerges when you go back and look at Canada and Amanda Nunes. Stick with us, we know it sounds weird, but not as weird as these stats.

The folks at MMA Junkie looked back at UFC events in Canada and found nine instances where the main event had to be changed: UFC 215 in Edmonton, UFC Fight Night 105 in Halifax, UFC 206 in Toronto, UFC 186 in Montreal, UFC 161 in Winnipeg, UFC 152 in Toronto, UFC 149 in Calgary, UFC 131 in Vancouver, and UFC 115 in Vancouver. That’s all just a little eerie, but another thing that is interesting is that Georges St-Pierre never had a problem in all his trips to Canada.

The last piece of information that is intertwined in all this, is Amanda Nunes and her seemingly good fortune despite all of these changes. Reddit user CakesStolen pointed out that, no matter what, Nunes seems to (for the most part) always come out on the positive end of a change. The fact that she will now headline UFC 215, is just icing on the cake.

UFC 200 – Conor McGregor was removed from his second fight with Nate Diaz from skipping a presser. Jon Jones was pulled from his second fight with Daniel Cormier for an anti-doping violation. Amanda Nunes and Miesha Tate headline the event for the women’s bantamweight title.

UFC 207 – Amanda Nunes headlines the event thanks to her fight with huge draw Ronda Rousey, but goes back to the co-main event spot afterwards.

UFC 213 – Cody Garbrandt pulls out of his fight with TJ Dillashaw due to back injury. Amanda Nunes’ fight with Valentina Shevchenko takes over the main event slot. Unfortunately, Nunes has to pull out due to sinusitis and Dana White says she’ll never headline a card again.

UFC 215 – A sick Ray Borg pulls out of his fight with Demetrious Johnson. Amanda Nunes’ rematch with Valentina Shevchenko becomes main event despite Dana White’s punishment.

Dana White after UFC 213: Amanda Nunes will never headline another event.

Amanda Nunes this morning:#UFC215 pic.twitter.com/wDHEQuMXGh

— Nicole Bosco (@NikBos) September 8, 2017

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 9/8/2017.