Brazilian light-heavyweight fighter Fabio Maldonado is among eight fighters who have been released by the UFC over the holiday season.
The 35 year-old Maldonado had lost three of his last four fights, starting with an ill-advised late replacement fight with Stipe Miocic at heavyweight last year which resulted in him being TKO’d in just 35 seconds.
He then rebounded with a win over Hans Stringer, but then suffered back-to-back decision losses to Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Corey Anderson in 2015.
Maldonado enjoyed some level of popularity, especially in his native Brazil, for his toughness and willingness to get into toe-to-toe battles in which he’d unleash his trademark body shots, but other aspects of his MMA game were limited and with an overall 5-6 stint in the Octagon it was clear he was never going to be a contender in the 205lb division.
Of those Joining Maldonado on the way out of the UFC at this time, Chico Camus perhaps stands out the most.
The 30-year competed at both bantamweight and more recently flyweight in the UFC over a three period period, going 3-3 (+1nc), with losses to top 10 125lb’ers Henry Cejudo and Kyoji Horiguchi being the catalyst for his release.
However, the fighter who can perhaps feel most hard done by is Brazil’s Kevin Souza who’s been cut despite going 3-1 in the promotion.
Souza started off his run in the Octagon with a three-fight winning streak that was only brought to an end last month when he was submitted by Chas Skelly.
Others who’ve received their marching orders from the UFC include Bubba Bush (0-1 +1nc), Mickael Lebout (1-2), Vernon Ramos (0-1), Jumabieke Tuerxun (0-3) and Ericka Almeida (0-2).
