It’s time for some roster cut announcements, not from the UFC, but from Bellator MMA. Six fighters were released following losses, while one fighter was cut after both losing and subsequently announcing his retirement. Here’s the full list of pink slips handed out: (Confirmed via MMAjunkie)
Mike Richman
Dave Jansen
Houston Alexander (for real)
Mikkel Parlo
Raphael Butler
Isao Kobayashi
Thiago Goncalves Jambo (retired)
The biggest surprise on this list is Dave Jansen (20-4), a recent lightweight title challenger who otherwise has a 7-2 record in Bellator. He’s coming off back-to-back losses to Marcin Held and Will Brooks, but apparently that was enough to send the 36-year-old packing.
Richman (18-6) lost a unanimous decision to Eduardo Dantas, missed weight for that fight, and then failed his post-fight drug test, which earned him a 2 year suspension dating back to May 2015. He’d won his first two bantamweight bouts by KO prior to the Dantas defeat.
Alexander (16-13-1, 2 NCs) only won 1 fight under the Bellator banner in 5 attempts, and lost by TKO to Guilherme Viana in his last bout. Parlo (13-3) dropped a unanimous decision to Chris Honeycutt last month, but otherwise had an overall Bellator record of 4-3. Butler (9-2-1) had a 4-2-1 record in Bellator but lost by TKO to Tony Johnson in January. Kobayashi (18-4-4) suffered back-to-back stoppage losses in his only Belltaor bouts, and was KO’d by Justin Lawrence at Dynamite 2 in St. Louis. Lastly, Jambo (18-5, 1 NC) called it a career after a knockout loss to Chidi Njokuani.
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