The last time fans saw Aspen Ladd, she was struggling and missing weight after taking several minutes to hit the scale. Now her coach explains what happened, as Aspen prepares to make her return to action on short notice.
Ladd had her fight with Macy Chiasson canceled after she failed to make weight, blaming her menstrual cycle for the mishap after the fact. However former former bantamweight champ and one-time potential opponent for Aspen, Miesha Tate accused the bantamweight prospect of trying to cheat the scales by leaning on the screen used to cover naked fighters, and also took shots at her coach.
Speaking in a recent interview with MiddleEasy, Jim West, Aspen’s coach and partner, denied these allegations of cheating from Tate. He said that he felt they came out of nowhere, and had no basis whatsoever, other than potential frustrations over their failed fight booking.
“Yeah it was very out of nowhere, and I think she was catching a little bit of heat for where that came out of left field. Two, to accuse someone of that, especially someone like me who comes from a law enforcement background, to see someone accuse when there’s nothing to validate that stupidity,” West said.
“(Tate) has a right to her own opinion, but Aspen (Ladd) is not a f—king magician, and if she was a magician, she sure in the hell wouldn’t have missed weight by cheating. If you’re going to do it, you’re not going to miss…
“I’m not going to sit here and talk s—t about Miesha. That fight will probably materialize down the road, and everything always comes first circle. When people run their mouth, it always comes full circle,” West added.
“Everyone has a right to run their mouth and say what they think and make assumptions, but you look like a dumbass when you make assumptions and you have no fact.
Jim West Knew Their Were Problems
As far as the botched weight cut itself goes, Aspen Ladd seemed to have been struggling for a while, which was an assumption that Jim West backed up. He explained that they knew for a couple of days that things were not looking good for her weight cut.
Nevertheless, they tried to carry on, thinking that things would balance out. However Aspen’s weight kept fluctuating and she kept holding water as a result of her period, leading to the struggles that unfolded at the scale.
“Wednesday morning everything was fine, (Ladd) woke up where she needed to be. I was a little concerned because I could tell there was something going on with fluctuation, basically starting on Tuesday I could tell there was something. But Wednesday it was a little bit more concerning, and then from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, she woke up about seven pounds heavier than she woke up on Wednesday morning,” West said.
“I knew there was something going on, she knew there was something going on, but we thought we would be able to handle it. Obviously we used the PI and probably one of the best in the game, and their nutrition experts there…
“The thing is, when you see social media, for one, I’ll be honest, a dude can’t comment on it period, end of story. You guys have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. And second, every female, they can argue until they’re blue in the face, but unfortunately for them, my day job, I work in OB-GYN with physicians and doctors all day long, and surgeons, I know what goes on with the physiology behind it,” West continued.
“No female is the same, relative to their period. Everyone is different. Some only retain two pounds, some retain five, some retain up to eight, nine, ten pounds. Aspen’s unfortunately one of them. We thought we could kind of curtail it, but she just couldn’t recover from that much weight gain.”
Aspen Ladd Blindly Accepted Norma Dumont Fight
Given how severe this weight cut mishap was, fans were surprised to hear that Aspen Ladd quickly turned around and accepted a main event on short notice. She agreed to replace Holly Holm in a featherweight bout against Norma Dumont this weekend, just two weeks after canceling her bout against Chiasson.
According to West, Aspen accepted this fight without even knowing who the opponent was going to be. She just wanted to get back out there and fight after missing the last bout, and it did not matter who she faced.
“(Ladd) didn’t even know who she was fighting. She was like ‘Yep, I’ll do it’ and then later she found out who she was fighting. Aspen’s a fighter at the end of the day. She knows she made a mistake, she owns it. It’s never easy for her to make that weight, and it has to be perfect for her to make 135,” West said.
“They’re both super aggressive fighters, Norma is very aggressive. She’s a good boxer, she has good movement. I think it has the potential of two people meeting in the middle, and being one of those fights that people talk about for a long time to come.”
It is going to be interesting to see how Aspen Ladd looks, when getting back to action on such a short turnaround after these health concerns. Hopefully all goes well and she can put on a good fight.
