Middleweight fighter Kyle Daukaus has been released by the UFC after struggling to make his mark in the division over the past two-and-a-half years.
“The road to success is always under construction, and you will need to drive through the towns of failure, adversity, self-doubt and critics to arrive at your destination of success”. #GOOD,” Daukaus wrote on social media after his departure from the promotion.
The 29-year-old Daukaus originally picked up a win in the Contender Series, but had to wait a full year and a further two fights on the regional circuit before he was finally drafted into the UFC as a short-notice replacement to fight Brendan Allen in 2020.
Daukaus lost his debut by unanimous decision, but still managed to get his foot in the door enough to get another fight against Dustin Stoltzfus, and this time he was the one emerging with a unanimous decision victory.
A loss on the scorecards to Phil Hawes came next, followed by the fight Daukaus is perhaps most remembered for, which saw him caught up in a bizarre scrap with Kevin Holland in which an accidental clash of heads led to his opponent being flash-KO’d. The ref didn’t spot it and let the fight go on as Holland woozily tried to get his bearings and Daukaus took full advantage to choke him unconscious soon afterwards.
Unfortunately for Daukaus his submission win was immediately amended to a no-contest ruling due to the head clash, but having now made himself known in the UFC, he then went on to pick up a win over Jamie Pickett back in February of last year.
However, the rest of the year did not go well for Daukaus, suffering a 73 second KO loss to Roman Dolidze followed by a TKO defeat against Eryk Anders in December that’s signalled the end to his time in the UFC.
Daukaus bows out of the UFC with a 2-4 (+1nc) record and an 11-4 (+1nc) career record overall so far.
