Brazilian fighter Lucas Martins has found himself in the unusual position of being released by the UFC despite having won his last fight in the Octagon.
The 27 year-old featherweight fighter defeated Robert Whiteford by split decision at UFC Fight Night 86 in Croatia on April 10th, which was the last bout on his current contract, but then he received the shock news that the promotion had decided not to re-up his deal.
“My manager (Diego) Lima was talking to the UFC, and said that the division is full,” Martins explained to MMAFighting.com. “Even though I was coming off a win, my contract is over and they told me to get a couple more wins outside the UFC, two nice knockouts, and they would definitely sign me again. I wasn’t expecting that because I was coming off a win, but it’s fine.”
Admittedly, there was not a lot of action in Martins last fight with Whiteford, which may have displeased the UFC brass, while prior to that he had lost two fights, in a row, but overall he had a 4-3 record in the UFC.
It’s clearly a frustrating situation for ‘Mineiro’, who’s now hoping to get back to the big stage as quickly as possible in order to ensure he can provide for his family.
“I’ve done a lot of things in there. There are athletes in the UFC that haven’t done half of what I did, and this is happening to me. I’ll keep my head up and continue doing my job. I’m looking at other fights now and go back to the UFC because they pay us better. I don’t fight for status, I fight for money to help my family.”
