It wasn’t a great day for the flyweight division, as it appears that five members of the 125-pound UFC roster have been released from the promotion. Competitors in four other divisions were allegedly given the axe as well.
UFCFIGHTERSiNFO over on Twitter first reported the apparent changes to the UFC’s online roster, which almost always indicates a fighters release from a UFC contract. Here are the fighters that were cut:
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The UFC Cutting Room Floor with Zane Simon
Tim Elliott
Dylan Andrews
Louis Gaudinot
Alptekin Ozkilic
Vik Grujic
Shayna Baszler
Shane Howell
Rocky Lee
Tateki Matsuda
Alexander Torres
Elliott (10-6-1, 2-4 UFC) is likely the biggest surprise. He had lost three bouts in a row, but they were to stellar competition – Ali Bagautinov, Joseph Benavidez, and most recently Zach Makovsky. He also lost to John Dodson in his debut, while picking up wins over fellow released fighter Gaudinot and Jared Papazian. My guess is that he’ll pick up a couple of wins and be back soon enough.
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Gaudinot (6-4, 1 NC, 1-3, 1 NC UFC) hasn’t competed since a January loss to Kyoji Horiguchi. The other three flyweights were Ozkilic (9-4, 1-3 UFC), Howell (13-9, 0-2 UFC), and Lee (10-7, 0-2 UFC).
The remaining five fighters were all TUF veterans from various versions of the show. Andrews (17-7, 1 NC, 2-3 UFC) picked up wins in his first two UFC bouts but was then finished three times in a row. Grujic (7-5, 1-3 UFC) dropped his second straight bout last month. Lee (3-1, 0-1 UFC) was a semi-finalist on TUF China but lost his only UFC bout by decision. Torres (2-2, 0-1 UFC) was the same sort of deal, but from TUF Latin America.
The final fighter was Shayna Baszler (15-10, 0-2 UFC), who was last stopped by Amanda Nunes in March.
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