Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos have been released from UFC
UFC Heavyweight veterans, Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos, have been released from the promotion following a sequence of negative results.
'Cigano' dos Santos is a former heavyweight champion, capturing Cain Velasquez's belt and defending it once against Frank Mir. Overeem had a title shot against Stipe Miocic at UFC 203 but failed to conquer the championship.
TSN Sports broke the news after the UFC removed both veterans from the heavyweight rankings. Later on, MMA Junkie confirmed with a UFC insider that dos Santos and Overeem are no longer part of the promotion's roster.
Not long after, dos Santos posted a text to his Instagram account where he confirmed the cut.
"Thanks, UFC, for a great 12 years! I fought through MMA's Murderer's Row to get my shot at the belt. Holding and defending it was one of the great honors of my life. Thanks to every opponent, thanks to every fan, and every critic. I'm going to spend some time back at the drawing board, but I'm excited to move on," wrote Dos Santos.
'Cigano' had one of the toughest paths to the title, defeating five Heavyweight champions in the process. However, Dos Santos failed to reproduce his best qualities recently, being knocked out in his last four fights.
40-year-old Overeem had recently announced he would like to have "one last run" at the title before retiring. However, it seems like the loss to Alexander Volkov in his last bout has taken his wish away.
Overeem competed as a mixed martial artist in four different decades. He was in the UFC since 2011, where he marked his debut with a brutal body shot knockout win over Brock Lesnar.
The two have locked horns with each other once in a heavyweight bout in 2015, where Overeem knocked dos Santos out to claim a win via TKO.
UFC continues with the plan to reduce its roster
In 2020, UFC president Dana White announced the promotion's intention of cutting around 60 fighters by the end of that year. However, the process is going at a much slower pace.
In addition to Overeem and dos Santos, Yoel Romero, Anthony Pettis, Fabricio Werdum, Anderson Silva, Paige VanZant are other notable names that have recently left or have been released from the UFC roster.
In its last update, the promotion's official website listed a total of 724 active fighters from 71 different countries. From those numbers, 117 are women and 607 men.