This is the rumour. Five fighters cut so far. Roger Narvaez Matt Van Buren Marcus Brimage Chris Clements Eddie Gordon (TUF Winner)
That's probably not a good sign. Many of the recent cards seemed really shallow on talent - and they are draining the pool? They must be planning to reduce the number of events.
hopefully that also means better cards too. 50 fighters though... that could almost jump start a new MMA org.
The cuts are happening. List is growing. Lewis Gonzalez Welter Joe Merritt Welter Roger Zapata Welter DOM Ron Stallings Middle USA Christos Giagos Light USA Leonardo Mafra Light BRA Matt Van Buren Light Heavy USA Eddie Gordon Middle JAM William Macario Welter BRA TJ Waldburger Welter USA Soa Palelei Heavy AUS (ret.) Luke Zachrich Middle USA Chris Clements Welter CAN Roger Narvaez Middle USA Amir Sadollah Welter USA Naoyuki Kotani Light JPN David Michaud Light USA Vagner Rocha Light BRA Hernani Perpetuo Welter BRA Pawel Pawlak Welter POL Francisco Trevino Light MEX Ivan Jorge Light BRA Nazareno Malegarie Light Jorge de Oliveira Welter BRA Ramsey Nijem Elias Silverio Light BRA Teruhito Ishihara Feather Anthony Christodou... Light GRC Tom Watson
I forgot all about Amir Sadollah. This is good news. I wish they would cut more lower level-mid level fighters. Reduce the amount of shows, beef up the shows. Quality > Quantity. Maybe this is the start to increased fighter pay?
Something tells me that with all of these under performing PPV's and bad ratings for TUF, it most certainly is not the start of increased fighter pay. Now if an org were smart, they'd scoop a bunch of the younger guys up and hope to become a feeder league for the UFC... cough-WSOF-cough.... I wonder if Bellator will be aggressive in pursuing some of these guys too... or do they only want the name UFC throw aways.
Fifty or even one hundred cuts does not affect the amount of shows. If they are left with 500 fighters that's 750 fights per year, or five cards per month. Obviously every fighter doesn't fight three times but that's what it would take. A real culling would see them go down to top-25 in each division (250 fighters), give or take for deeper or shallower divisions (less flyweight, heavyweight, more lightweight, etc.)
