bunch of new names removed from eligibility
on the UFC fan rankings:Peter Barrett
Antonio Carlos Junior
Spike Carlyle
Anthony Ivy
Jacob Kilburn
Vanessa Melo
Sarah Moras
Vinicius Moreira
Markus Perez
Cole Williams— Tom Feely (@omgitsfeely)
February 4, 2021
The Ultimate Fighting Championship just made a wave
of cuts from fighters largely on losing streaks.
MMA Junkie made the first report that the promotion let several
fighters go, including Antonio
Carlos Jr., Carlton
Minus and Rhys McKee.
MMA Fighting subsequently released a list of other names to
bring the tally to an even dozen. In addition to the aforementioned
three, Vanessa
Melo is not part of the roster but is looking to sign a new
deal. Broadcast partner ESPN
confirmed all of the cuts shortly after their initial
announcements.
The list of fighters reads as follows: Peter
Barrett (11-5), Carlos Jr. (10-5, 1 NC), Spike
Carlyle (9-3), Anthony Ivy
(8-4), Jacob
Kilburn (8-4), McKee (10-4-1), Melo (11-8), Minus (10-3, 1 NC),
Sarah
Moras (6-7), Vinicius
Moreira (9-5), Markus
Perez (12-5) and Cole
Williams (11-3). The company promised that it would thin the
ranks, expecting to trim upwards of 60 fighters before the end of
2020. Although it did not reach that total, of late it has released
or opted not to re-sign significant names like Yoel Romero,
Anthony
Pettis, Anthony
Johnson and Anthony
Rocco Martin.
Of the dozen fighters to lose their place on the roster, the most
noteworthy is likely Carlos Jr., who won the third season of “The
Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” at heavyweight. “Cara de Sapato” dropped
down to middleweight for most of the rest of his time with the
promotion, besides a light heavyweight match with Patrick
Cummins in 2014. The Brazilian made his way up the rankings,
even reaching the top-10 before suffering a trio of defeats to
Ian
Heinisch, Uriah Hall
and Brad
Tavares to spell his release.
Even though they had won fights in the past, losing streaks for
Carlyle, Moras and Perez prompted their releases. Meanwhile,
Barrett, Ivy, Kilburn, McKee, Minus, Moreira and Williams never won
a single fight as UFC fighters, with the seven competing a combined
16 times. Melo did win her last fight and, in the process, snapped
a three-fight skid, but her performance against Moras at UFC on ABC
1 was less-than-stellar. For her part in the slow-paced affair,
Moras suffered her fifth loss in six appearances, lowering her UFC
record to 3-6.
