NYSAC strikes again, pulls Jessica Aguilar from UFC Utica for ‘chapped lips’

No. This is not a joke.

UFC strawweight fighter, Jessica ‘JAG’ Aguilar was supposed to be taking on Jodie Esquibel on the prelim portion of tonight’s UFC Utica card. Instead, that won’t be happening due to the New York State Athletic Commission removing her from the card for having chapped lips reports Ariel Helwani.

"Due to a medical issue involving strawweight athlete Jessica Aguilar, the New York State Athletic Commission has cancelled her scheduled bout against Jodie Esquibel. Tonight's UFC FIGHT NIGHT card will proceed with 12 bouts, beginning at 6:55 pm ET / 3:55 pm PT.”

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 1, 2018

“Due to a medical issue involving strawweight athlete Jessica Aguilar, the New York State Athletic Commission has cancelled her scheduled bout against Jodie Esquibel. Tonight’s UFC FIGHT NIGHT card will proceed with 12 bouts, beginning at 6:55 pm ET / 3:55 pm PT.”

Here’s a quote from Jessica Aguilar on getting pulled moments ago from her UFC Utica fight over what she described as a “chapped lips” issue: “NY commission is horrible and don’t understand everything we go through to make it here. It’s absolutely crazy and heartbraking.”

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 1, 2018

Here’s a quote from Jessica Aguilar on getting pulled moments ago from her UFC Utica fight over what she described as a “chapped lips” issue: “NY commission is horrible and don’t understand everything we go through to make it here. It’s absolutely crazy and heartbreaking.

According to Aguilar’s coach, Din Thomas via MMAJunkie, the commission thought that Aguilar may have had some sort of infection and was even worried about it the day before.

“[Thursday], the commission doctor saw her lips and thought it may have been some sort of infection,” Thomas said, “They rushed her to a dermatologist as soon as she stepped off the scale. The dermatologist said nothing was wrong and cleared her to fight, gave her a doctor’s note and everything. Now today, the commission doctor saw her and told her she can’t fight.”

This isn’t the first time that the NYSAC has shown complete incompetence towards MMA regarding UFC events and their fighters.

It seems like every UFC event in the newest state to legalize MMA has had some sort of issue. At UFC 210 there was the incident where Pearl Gonzalez was almost not allowed to fight due to having breast implants. Then in a more recent case when Max Holloway was removed from his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223 because they didn’t believe he was going to make weight.

The 36-year old Aguilar was going to have her third fight in the UFC until this happened(her 26th overall, she is 19-6). Still searching for her first win under the banner, she will have to wait until another date.

Both Aguilar and Esquibel would like to get the fight re-booked as soon as possible.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/1/2018.