Nate Maness has revealed that the UFC have opted not to renew his contract despite having won his last two fights in the flyweight division.
“We received word back from the UFC matchmaker last week about why we weren’t re-signed,” Maness stated on X on Monday. “We were told the Flyweight division is comprised of exciting fighters and he doesn’t view me as exciting
“I suppose half your fights being finishes/bonuses isn’t good enough now.”
The 33-year-old Maness compiled a 5-2 run during his time in the UFC, extending his overall record to 16-3 in the process.
Along the way he did deliver a number of finishes inside the distance, including submitting Luke Sanders, TKO’ing Tony Gravely and as recently as October of last year TKO’d Mateus Mendonca in the first round.
Flyweights don’t appear to be held in high regard in the UFC at the moment though as Maness release comes at the same time as another notable 12lb’er, the undefeated Muhammad Mokaev was also shown the exit door despite having put together a 7-0 run in the UFC.
Behind the scenes issues are believed to be at least partly to blame for Mokaev’s exit, but there’s no indication that’s also the case with Maness.
In fact, since making his original post at the start of the week, Maness says UFC officials have been in touch with him again.
“@ufc has been in contact with us a couple different times since the post was put up,” Maness wrote. “It’s clearly making a difference and they don’t like the light that has been casted on them. No trash talk. Just truth. @danawhite. Thank you guys for all the likes, shares and support.”
Whether that means the UFC are about to change their mind about releasing him remains to be seen though.
