The UFC has done some house keeping, and a number of fighters are no longer with the promotion as a result.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, no fewer than 10 athletes were removed from the promotion’s roster, as first noted by UFC Roster Watch, an automated service that monitors changes to the UFC’s fighter database. That’s in addition to the retirement of Dhiego Lima, who announced he was done with fighting on Wednesday, and Mallory Martin, who fought out her contract last year and has not been re-signed.
The fighters no longer on the active roster are:
Collin Anglin, Dakota Bush, Andre Ewell, Hu Yaozong, Sasha Palatnikov, Domingo Pilarte, Gaetano Pirrello, Sean Soriano, Jordan Williams, and David Zawada.
Ewell (17-9), who confirmed his release on social media, was coming off a three-fight skid that included a defeat in his return to the featherweight division last year. That fight saw “Mr. Highlight” lose a unanimous decision against Charles Jourdain.
“There’s more to the story. But hey thank you UFC,” Ewell wrote in a brief statement Wednesday.
Also releasing a statement was Sean Soriano (14-8), who indicated that he could be done with fighting entirely. The Rhode Island native was coming off back-to-back losses after returning to the promotion just last year.
“Thank you UFC for all the opportunities. My career definitely didn’t go as I envisioned it would go. Don’t know if I will continue to fight but just want to thank everyone who has helped me in the process. Also thank you to those who have shown love n support throughout the [years].”
Jordan Williams (9-6, 1NC), a Type-1 Diabetic, was an inspirational story when he made the UFC after appearing three times on Dana White’s Contender Series. Unfortunately, he went 0-3 during his time with the promotion — though he did find manage to hit the mainstream news by stopping a car thief in action last year.
Ian Garry, Williams’ last opponent, gave his reaction to the fighter’s release (via Pundit Arena):
“I mean, obviously, it is pretty cool that I’m retiring people. I’m not going to sit here and lie, it is pretty cool,” he stated, before adding that “I want to credit Jordan because Jordan and Marc Montoya (head coach at FX Muay Thai) did a hell of a job in that fight. That was my toughest fight to date.”
“He changed a lot between fights so I think he’ll be back.”
Dakota Bush (8-4), Collin Anglin (8-3), Gaetano Pirrello (15-7-1), Sasha Palatnikov (6-4), David Zawada (17-7), and Domingo Pilarte (8-3, 1NC) were all coming off back-to-back losses, in Pilarte’s case with a No Contest sandwiched in between. China’s Hu Yaozong (3-3) had lost all three of his UFC fights.
