Notable names like Matheus Nicolau, Robelis Despaigne and Jessica Penne are among a total of six fighters who have been cut from the UFC roster this week.
This is the 2nd time that the 31-year-old Nicolau has been released from the promotion, having perhaps been unfortunate to be shown the exit door following a 3-1 run between 2015-2018.
He fought his way back into the fold by 2021 though and made an immediate impact with four wins in a row against respected opponents like Manel Kape, Tim Elliott, David Dvorak and Matt Schnell.
However he’s since suffered a damaging run of defeats, including back-to-back knockout losses against Brandon Royval and Alex Perez followed by a unanimous decision loss to Asu Amabayev earlier this month.
Robelis Despaigne drew a lot of interest when he signed for the UFC earlier this year as not only is he a giant physical specimen in the heavyweight ranks, but he’s also an Olympic Taekwondo bronze medalist and had won all four of his MMA bouts via strikes – three of which lasted a combined time of just 19 seconds.
The 36-year-old appeared to live up to the hype in his UFC debut by TKO’ing Josh Parisian in just 18 seconds, but his complete lack of a ground game was then laid bare in unanimous decision losses to Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Austen Lane, leading to his release.
Meanwhile, former women’s strawweight title contender Jessica Penne has also been cut from the promotion after suffering three losses in a row.
The now 41-year-old Penne had originally joined the UFC after finishing as a semi-finalist on TUF 20 back in 2014. After a win in her debut she suddenly found herself in a title fight against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, but lost by TKO.
Reaching that title opportunity proved to be the high point of Penne’s career as she’d go on to suffer a further two losses before being slammed with a four-year ban from the sport after a second drug-test failure.
That appeared to be the end of Penne’s career, but she served the full length of her suspension and returned to action, picking up a couple of wins before the slump in form that has ended her time in the promotion.
And finally, Jesse Butler (0-2), Vinicius Salvador (0-3) and Tamires Vidal (1-3) have also been removed from the roster this week.
