UFC Roster Watch recently reported that last night UFC President Dana White fired eight fighters from the UFC’s official roster.
Dana White releases eight fighters
The fighters removed from the rankings are Misha Cirkunov, Louis Cosce, Charlie Onitveros, Nick Maximov, Magomed Mustafaev, Jesse Ronson, Cameron VanCamp and Darian Weeks.
It seems that being removed from the roster does not necessarily mean these fighters have been cut from the UFC. Some may have had their contracts expire and are yet to resign new ones. However, more often than not this is a sign that a fighter’s days in the Octagon may be over.
The most well-known of these fighters is Cirkunov, who fought in a co-main event slot last year. In that fight the Canadian was defeated by Ryan Spann via TKO. The loss to Spann started a four-fight losing streak for Cirkunov, which included defeats to Krzysztof Jotko (who was also released recently), Wellington Turman and Alonzo Menifield. The Menifield loss, a TKO, happened at last month’s UFC Vegas 62.
Cirkunov had entered the UFC in 2015 and started his Octagon career with a four fight winning streak and stoppage victories over Alex Nicholson, Nikita Krylov and Ion Cutelaba. After those wins he was inconsistent, losing to Volkan Oezdemir, Glover Teixeira and Johnny Walker but picking up wins over Jim Crute and Patrick Cummins. If his UFC career ends today, it does so with a 6-7 record.
While, Cosce graduated to the UFC after a win on the Contender Series. He lost his twice in the promotion, most recently to Trevin Giles.
Onitveros joined the UFC as an ultra late replacement to fight Kevin Holland in 2020. He lost by submission. He then lost his next three UFC fights. Maximov, who is trained by the Diaz brothers, has a winning record in the UFC (3-2) and lost to Jacob Malkoun last month.
Mustafaev fought five times for the UFC since 2015. The Dagestani has a notable spinning backfist KO win over Rafael Fiziev from 2019. Ronson had an 0-2 (1 NC) record with the UFC since joining in 2020. VanCamp went 0-2 after debuting with the promotion this year. Weeks, who fought pro in boxing and MMA before joining the UFC went 0-3 in the Octagon.
