It’s been a while since the UFC has done any official roster trimming. The promotion that used to release about as many fighters per-month as they signed has been stockpiling talent for the past couple years, ballooning their roster up near 600 athletes. But, all things come to an end, and it appears a few fighters have just been axed from the promotion.
According to UFCFIGHTERSiNFO on Twitter – which runs a ruby script to scrape the official UFC.com roster for changes – five previously unreported cuts have been made to the UFC’s official roster: Galore Bofando, Bobby Nash, Dmitry Poberezhets, Francimar Barroso, and Kailin Curran.
Of those five Galore Bofando is the biggest surprise. The DRC-born British fighter made a stellar debut in the UFC against Conor McGregor training partner Charlie Ward, defeating Ward via a knockout throw just two minutes into the first round. He followed that up with a first round loss to Chad Laprise in December of 2017. While already 35-years-old, it seems a puzzling decision to release a fighter who delivered what was, for many, among the best KOs of the year after only two fights.
Also a little surprising is the release of Ukranian heavyweight Dmitry Poberezhets. The 24-5-1 veteran was initially signed back in January of 2017, and expected to debut at UFC 211 in May. Injuries scrapped that fight, and another injury setback ahead of the UFC’s upcoming London Fight Night card saw him removed from a bout with Mark Godbeer as well. It appears that his time with the promotion has ended before ever getting his first bout in the Octagon. Poberezhets was on a 15-fight unbeaten streak at the time of his signing.
Otherwise Bobby Nash (0-3 in the UFC), Francimar Barroso (4-4 1 NC), and Kailin Curran (1-6) are all in line with what has traditionally resulted in termination of a fighter’s contract. Along with these five fighters are the previously reported releases of Nate Marquardt (retired), Oluwale Bamgbose, Chris Wade, Carls John De Tomas, and Pietro Menga.
UPDATE:
Additionally, and not included in the UFCFIGHTERSiNFO ruby script, Karine Gevorgyan and Ariel Beck have been removed from the women’s flyweight division, along with previously reported cuts Deanna Bennett and Christina Marks.
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