According to a report, UFC has made a massive purging of its roster, including one Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar is just one of 35 fighters on the UFC.com active fighters roster that were released. Initially only 19 fighters were released but subsequent reports have total the number of releases to 35.
While it is common for the UFC to release several fighters at once, it is uncommon for this number of fighters to be released. New owners WME-IMG saw a large number of employees laid off last year after they acquired the company.
Other fighters, such as former WEC title challenger Takeya Mizugaki, Rick Story and Lorenz Larkin, were removed from the company roster as well. Mizugaki has lost four of his last five fights with his last fight being a TKO defeat to Eddie Wineland back in December. Larkin is exploring free agency.
Lesnar has only fought once in the last few years, fighting in a marquee match against Mark Hunt at UFC 200. While Lesnar won the match via unanimous decision, the fight was later ruled a no contest after Lesnar failed a drug test before the fight. Lesnar is currently suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission, which will end later this year.
The UFCFightersInfo twitter, which is an automatic script based on additions and removals from the roster, helped reveal the info.
Below is the running list of reported fighters that were released:
- Anthony Birchak
- Clay Collard
- Maximo Blanco
- Geane Herrera
- Brock Lesnar
- Taylor Lapilus
- Seohee Ham
- Takeya Mizugaki
- Brendan O’Reilly
- Erik Perez
- Lorenz Larkin
- Rick Story
- Jessamyn Duke
- Cole Miller
- Elvis Mutapcic
- Joe Gigliotti
- Fredy Serrano
- Fernando Bruno
- Yao Zhikui
- Adam Hunter
- Joey Gomez
- Bartosz Fabinski
- Augusto Montano
- Yaotzin Meza
- Yves Jabouin
- Milana Dudieva
- Anton Zafir
- Tony Sims
- Lukasz Sajewski
- Tiago Trator
- Kenny Robertson
- Francisco Rivera
- Roldan Sangcha-an
- Gasan Umalatov
- Jon Delos Reyes
