Heading into 2019, we all guessed there was a good chance the UFC flyweight division was on its last legs. But when Henry Cejudo knocked out TJ Dillashaw at the first round of their bout at UFC Fight Night 143, we thought there was an opportunity the branch could be spared, especially since the UFC announced a few different fights at 125lbs for different occasions.
Well, it seems like that might not be the case, as the promotion has reportedly released several different flyweights.
According to Cejudo, who talked to the press this past weekend in UFC Fight Night 144, the UFC has launched top-ranked flyweights Dustin Ortiz and Matheus Nicolau. In addition, John Moraga was removed from the UFC’s official positions, indicating he also was published. The UFC has not yet commented on if these fighters have really officially been released, but generally it is around the fighters to tell the fans and media when that happens. Virtually anytime someone was eliminated from the positions for unknown reasons, however, it’s generally because the UFC released them.
Even though the UFC flyweight division is clearly on its way out, the choice to cut an excellent fighter such as Ortiz is utterly shocking, and dare I say, dumb. Ortiz is coming from a competitive unanimous decision loss to Joseph Benavidez in UFC Fight Night 143 which was clearly one of the better fights on that card. There is a chance Benavidez understands the next crack at Cejudo’s belt, meaning the UFC simply cut Ortiz coming off of a title eliminator. And before the Benavidez fight, Ortiz had won three straight fights, including a mind kick knockout over the aforementioned Nicolau, a determination win over Alexandre Pantoja — a talented flyweight who it seems was spared from the cuts so much — along with also a 15-second KO over Hector Sandoval that was the fastest knockout in UFC flyweight history. If anything, the UFC should have told Ortiz to maneuver around bantamweight, which Alex Perez apparently is going to do (in addition to fighters such as Said Nurmagomedov). Releasing such a talented and fighter such as Ortiz outright just seems absurd.
As for Nicolau, he’d won three of his battles in the Octagon before losing to Ortiz, and although he didn’t seem to be a title contender, he still provided valuable thickness at 125lbs. He also holds a notable win over Moraga, who it seems has also got the boot. That. Moraga was really among the first flyweights the UFC signed back in 2012, and although he had an up-and-down UFC career, he was considered to be a good gatekeeper and the perfect test for up-and-comers to shoot on. In his last battle, he was knocked out by Deiveson Figueiredo, who seems to be one of the couple flyweights the UFC still has on the roster. There’s no reason Moraga could not have stuck around and continued to act in a gatekeeper role. It just seems too harsh to reduce a man who had been among the few fighters with finishing possible in a division that generally sees struggles move the distance.
At this point, it is very bizarre that which the UFC is performing together with the flyweights. If you ask UFC president Dana White, he states that the advertising has not made a determination on the division, but it feels like every day we’re seeing a flyweight get cut, and then the next day we see a flyweight fight reserved. It would be nice if the UFC could create its mind and either cut all of the flyweights or keep a complete branch, because now the fighters have no clue what kind of job security they have moving forward, and that’s not fair to anybody.
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