UFC removes 19 fighters from roster

Friday afternoon, news surfaced that the UFC had purged their active roster, removing 19 fighters from the promotions database of active fighters currently signed to the promotion.

While some members of the list of released fighters are currently free agents, and could very well re-sign with the UFC, others have already announced their retirement, or have expressed no desire to return to the Octagon in the near future.

The full list was released by the UFCFightersinfo Twitter account, which uses an algorithm to track who has been added and removed from the promotion’s website. The source is extremely accurate one, and in the past has been treated as an official source.

The 19 fighters are listed below:

Anthony Birchak
Clay Collard
Maximo Blanco
Geane Herrera
Brock Lesnar
Taylor Lapilus
Seohee Ham
Takeya Mizugaki
Brendan O’Reilly
Erik Perez
Lorenz Larkin
Rick Story
Jessamyn Duke
Cole Miller
Elvis Mutapcic
Joe Gigliotti
Fredy Serrano
Fernando Bruno
Yao Zhikui

Some notable names include Brock Lesnar, Takeya Mizugaki, Erik Perez, Lorenz Larkin, Rick Story, and Cole Miller.

Lesnar had been absent from the Octagon for 5 years before returning to the Octagon in 2016 to fight Mark Hunt at UFC 200. The situation was an extremely controversial one, with Lesnar receiving an exemption from the first portion of random USADA out-of-competition drug tests. Ultimately, after initially getting the unanimous decision, the win was overturned to a no contest after Lesnar failed a pair of drug tests. Ultimately, Lesnar was handed a suspension for the infraction, and is currently working for the WWE.

Lorenz Larkin is currently riding a 2-fight win streak in the UFC, most recently defeating Neil Magny via TKO at UFC 202 in August, at the present time there has been no word on whether or not the promotion will look to re-sign the streaking welterweight contender.

Stay tuned for updates on the situation as they become available.

on 2/10/2017.