The UFC has released nine fighters from the roster, including notable names like John Makdessi and Andre Fialho.
Other fighters on the list who will also be looking for a new promotion to call home include JP Buys, Carl Deaton, A.J. Fletcher, Kamuela Kirk, Tucker Lutz and Shane Young.
The 38-year-old Makdessi has spent most of his career in the UFC, initially joining back in 2010 at a time when he’d compiled a 7-0 record on the regional circuit in his native Canada.
Since then Makdessi has compiled an 11-9 record, with some of his biggest wins coming over the likes of Sam Stout, Ross Pearson, Abel Trujillo and Daron Cruickshank.
However, Makdessi had lost three of his last four fights, with a unanimous decision defeat against Jamie Mullarkey last month signalling the end of his UFC run.
As for the 29-year-old Fialho, he had stints in Bellator, PFL and LFA prior to joining the UFC in early 2022, suffering a loss in his debut against Michel Pereira.
However, Fialho then put himself on the map by winning back-to-back fights in less than a month against Miguel Baeza and Cameron VanCamp.
Fialho’s attempt to keep that momentum going by fighting again a month later backfired however when he was KO’d by Jake Matthews, and that was the catalyst for what has proven to be a four-fight losing slump, with the other three defeats all coming by way of TKO over the past 12 months.
