Bethe Correia injured, out of planned January fight vs. Irene Aldana

UFC women’s bantamweight Bethe Correia recently underwent “emergency surgery,” forcing her out of a planned January fight against Irene Aldana.

Before the UFC could even officially announce her fight, women’s bantamweight veteran Bethe Correia has already been forced to withdraw due to injury.

In a statement posted on Instagram, the one-time title challenger agreed to fight Irene Aldana at a yet-to-be announced card in January 2018, but her Octagon return will have to wait a little bit longer.

Her statement reads as follows:

In the first place I want to thank @irene.aldana for agreeing to fight with me in January. I was very excited to go to war with a Mexican woman. Unfortunately, I had an accident, had to go through an emergency surgery and my return to the most famous octagon in the world will take few more months. I was so excited to show to the world my evolution and what I learned with my experiences in Thailand and in Texas, anyway ... I'll meet you in the first semester of 2018. Injuries are a part of a fighter’s life and it prepares us for tough battles and for the overcoming of adversity, making us psychologically stronger. I want to thank Dr. Remo Turchetti for the success of the treatment, making me fit and prepared for the next @ufc battles.

Taking a wild and extremely educated guess based off of that picture, it looks as if she had surgery on her left eye, but no further specifics on her accident were revealed.

Correia (10-3-1) has won just once in her last five fights, and has been brutally knocked out in two of her three losses. The 34-year-old was memorably stopped in 34 seconds by Ronda Rousey at UFC 190, and this past June, she was KO’d by a Holly Holm head kick in the main event of UFC Singapore. Bethe’s only victory in the last two years is a split decision over Jessica Eye.

Aldana (7-4) has yet to get in the win column in the UFC. The highly touted prospect out of Invicta FC dropped her Octagon debut to Leslie Smith last December, then came up short against Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 210 in April. She is known for her exciting performances in victory or defeat, and has racked up four post-fight bonuses between her Invicta and UFC tenures.

With Correia’s statement that she’ll met Aldana “in the first semester of 2018,” perhaps it’s possible that this fight will merely be postponed, instead of booking both fighters for separate opponents.