It’s lately win or go home inside the Octagon … literally.
The UFC — in a move to trim its roster and offer the better fighters more opportunities to compete — has once again released several fighters from their contracts after losing performances, including Din Thomas, Kuniyoshi Hironaka and Tommy Speer, according to the most recent print edition of the Wrestling Observer newsletter.
These combatants join Jake O’Brien, Travis Lutter, David Heath, Kalib Starnes, Joe Doerksen and John Halverson on the growing list of recent Zuffa contract casualties.
Thomas is perhaps the most accomplished veteran to get the axe — he was considered a top contender in the stacked 155-pound division prior to back-to-back losses (one was because he blew out his knee during the fight.) “Dinyero” — perhaps sensing that the end was near — recently revealed his desires to compete at 145 pounds.
Whether or not he lands in the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) promotion remains to be see.
Speer, of course, was the runner up during The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 6 show, losing in the finals to eventual champion Mac Danzing via first round technical knockout. The “Farm Boy” was then blasted out in his next fight against Anthony Johnson at UFC Fight Night 13 last month.
That’s not a glowing endorsement of the talent pool of the mixed martial arts reality series.
Hironaka was a very tough fighter who could just not get it together inside the Octagon. He lost three of four bouts, including a “Fight of the Night” against Jonathan Goulet at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ on April 19.
If nothing else this latest news puts more pressure on fighters to not only win, but perform well if given the chance to fight for the UFC. It also ensures that, hopefully, we see more of the top fighters competing against better competition more often.
May 5th, 2008
this is a lot of bull comming from dana who’s mian argument promoting mma i mean the UFC was that your job was not over with one or two loses, like in boxing. Dana has continued to make the analogy that in boxing, unlike the UFc, NOt mma, that one had to have a record of like 33 wins and no losses to be “somebody”
But in the ufc its that way too Gary shaw is right on this point that the ufc does not want to cultivate fighters they want to make money and promote their brand of mma the ufc not MMA which will be bad in the end….
more double frekking talk from dana double talk white head!!!!!!1
im usually sceptical about dana white but unfortunatly zuffa wont put on enough shows for us so we dont get to see all the best fighters in action! in fairness you wont miss them all that much! they will be able to compete in other orgs! i expect to see din back but not for a while! clay guida has lossed a few fights now but he wont be out of contract trust me! jake o brien was cut because he is boring but he wins and nobody want another broing fighter dominating heavyweight! he’l be back when he updates his jujitsu. look at it this way we will get to see more of fights like hendo vs franklin , liddell vs shogun, and possible matchups like jardine-machida, guida-maynard, edgar-aurelio.
my point is why is jared rollins fighting but tommy speer is on! id say the looser of rollins vs sanders walks
Dude, Ben is no joke (jeet kune do, bitches) and will be making some noise at 170…Dana is not dumb neither is Joe.
Ben will still be in the UFC if he loses, but Jared that’s a different story…He’s a good fighter, but has already peaked (He’s 31) and if he starts out with a losing record of 0-2 He won’t have much time to prove he has what it takes to become a contender @ 170.
no, he said a few exciting losses won’t get you fired. was tommy spears two losses exciting? no, he had as much skill as my 6 year old!
no he ment they can go to another promotion put a few wins together and come back. not drop off the face of ther earth
Just like what cro cop is doing he siad he was leaving going to get some wins then he would come back
as in boxing
tommy spear got KTFO, i dont see him going far…
yeah tommy speer is one of those fighters(wrestlers) who just lays on people and hopes for a decision he should take this move as a gift to train on other aspects of his fighting game with some work maybe he will be seen in the u.f.c. again.
Yeah, like when he KTFO George Sotiropolis?
Grant it he knnocked out Georgy the greek, but George is a real mma fighter. Heb is built for the UFC, I have seen him fight a tough fight against Shiny aOKI in Japan…. I think Sitiropolous has a bright future.
Tommy Spears = BUST!!! is anyone really surprised? He comes from a town with like 50 people in it….watching him crap his pants walking to the cage in front of 20,000 people was priceless.
I guess Matt Hughes formula doesnt work any more:
Big Strong Guy + Wrestling = Good mma fighter!!!!
Not any more Hughes….Become well rounded or get out (Tito, Hughes)! Lol
20,000 people???? When did Tommy walk out in front of that many people? Wasn’t the finale at the Hard Rock as usual? That only hold a few grand. And the UFN in Denver only held 6,000… But I completely understand what you’re saying bud. Tommy probably could have walked into a Super Stop and Shop or a Super WalMart and had the same crap his pants reaction! LOL
The only suprise here is Din Thoms. Din Thomas is an elite 155 lb fighter. The loss to Florian should not count against him in any decision making process. I REALLY hope that he does move to 145, however, I do not know how he’s going to cut that extra 10 lbs. I wonder how much wieght he walks around at. Maybe he is just VERY lein and only cuts like 7 lbs to make LW. Then he’d be able to make 145. I wish my best to Dinyero.
If the UFC has room for Rob Emerson and Corey Hill in the LW division, how can they not have room for Din Thomas???
You don’t think that ripped, 6′4, MFS trained, 2-0 UFC fighter Cory Hill will murder people at 155? Are you one of those “TUF” haters?
Exactly. Totally agree. He’s WAY better than those two by far. He has wins over Jens Pulver, Matt Serra, Rich Clementi and Clay Guida to name a few. Yes….some before the UFC.
Maybe it was the underground fighting he was charged with - and subsequently cleared from - that left a bad taste in Dana’s mouth….You know how he is about competition. LOL.
Yeah “smokers” really hurt the UFC’s bottom line…
Wait. Were you just joking?
thats it bro he needs to learn more submissions and alot more boxing
Nobody wants to see, as Dana so eloquently stated on TUF, two turtles f*cking, and that’s all you get with LnP guys like Speers. The best part of all this is the fights will be more compelling with good match-ups, unlike EliteXC, which can only promote one big-name fighter against some unknown can (or known Tupperware) in a glorified sparring exhibition.
“in a move to trim its roster and offer the the better fighters more opportunities”
Good call grammar king
LOL - Grammar King
I agree with all but the Din Thomas release. Unless the UFC knew something more about Din’s blown knee, Din Thomas is an excellent fighter and could have been a gatekeeper at 155lbs. A healthy Din Thomas could easily compete and quite possibly beat guys like Danzig, Lauzon, and even Huerta. I guess the UFC decided to cut the older guys to let the young guns take over the division.
Looks like the honor of 155 gatekeeper will solely go to Clay Guida.
I agree …i do hope Clay climbs the latter though
He was talking about dropping down to 145 though, so it may have been mutual with his release so he can go fight in the WEC and tear up the 145 division.
This is good don a few levels, the UFC will have more room for marquee guys to fight on cards, less cards will be cluttered with boring or bad fights now, and we also get to see more shows from other organizations now, since I’m guessing almost everyone who gets cut from the UFC will end up with EiteXC or one of the other organizations. This is a good thing.
Din THomas was not really released! He said weeks ago he wanted to fight at 145 lb. I am sure he will land in the WEC, which would still make him a Zuffa employee.
Din moving to 145 is actually a better move. It adds another tough contender for Urijah to defend the belt against.
I am more pissed about hironaka then anything…To get cut after being in the fight of the night is a little strange to me….but whatever!
Yeah I don’t get why he got cut, not like he got his ass handed to him or anything. lol He almost had that fight a few times, but yeah, oh well.
clay got rubbed on decisions though bro his only real loss was to huerta and he was amazing in that fight
agreed!!!
Releasing Din Thomas IMO was a HUGE mistake!
So, basically, TUF 6 was a huge waste of time. The winner is fighting as a lightweight now, and the runner-up lost 2 fights and got cut.
lol! thats so true, but george is still doing good.
are you serious??? the finale was awesome, i was impressed by so many fighters that night. j-roc and war machine was a battle that honestly i thought wouldnt have been that great of a fight, those guys left it all in the cage. a few fighters with some real potential to do something later came off that show.
Face facts dude Tommy Speer did not belong in the ranks of the UFC welterweight division. furthermore, he was lucky to beat out George when he eye gouged the guy and the guy made the mistake of not clearing up his vision before continuing. IMO he was the 5th best fighter in that house behind Danzig, George, Matt and Ben. Did you really think he stood a chance after watching the finale that he belonged in the UFC?
the only questionable cut the UFC made was Din Thomas, but the circumstances surrounding his injury might be why they cut him. Din will be back, as for everyone else they should take a trip back to the minor league and realize where they belong anyways.
A fight I really wanna see now is Mac against Nate Diaz, though the UFC won’t make that match for at least a year.
I’m really surprised that they let go of hironaka since he was just part of a fight of the night on the last ufc. But he did have trouble actually winning fights.
The ufc 155 division is crazy stacked so i could see getting din thomas out of there….i guess.
Tommy Speer? Don’t they still have alot of the other fighters from that season still on their roster? i know he just got KO’d but he beat guys that they’re keeping? i could see war machine cause that was an awesome fight, but Sotiropoulis?
i am sure actualy din asked to be realsed because he said he wanted to drop down to 145
I think it’s a smart move by the ufc. The top fighter could fight more often and we only get to see the best fighters in the ufc.
They are releasing many fighter but don’t forget the also signed many new fighters in the last few month
ok this is way of topic, but…
has anyone watched wwe wrestling lately. i mean really! have u guys seen undertakers “new” submission hold. its the “triangle choke”, but its not even a triangle choke! its a lame fake one. for shame taker. its sooo funny to watch him apply this deadly finishing move! lol!!!
He’s faking a gogoplata, not a triangle choke…
That’s what it looked like to me, a modified gogo that he can’t fully execute because he just isn’t flexible enough anymore at whatever age he is. The blood pouring out of the mouths of the victims is a nice touch though.
OMG WRESTLING’S FAKE?!?!?!
Seriously dude, the fact that wrestling is fake is old news.
Yeah I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, they also mentioned that someones stand up has really improved recently? STAND UP? IN WWE? haha
Tommy Speers is gay anywayz so i’m glad he got cut from tha UFC, he doesn’t belong in tha UFC cause he got knocked out like a girl.
and you would knock out anthony johnson im sure
let matt hughes work with tommy for a lil while and watch what he becomes if he can learn to get rid of his bullshit farm boy small town ego bullshit as for din thomas lil suprised on that one
I thinnk that’s the problem. The ground and pound era is over, you need to be completely well rounded. It’s the same with Tito, you can’t just have wrestling and ground and pound.
True, it is not enough, but it is a good base. If he worked on his boxing he could do a lot better. Maybe if he trained with Greg Jackson.
I feel bad for Speer, because Anthony Johnson just seems like a pretty legit striker. I would’ve liked to see them give him one more fight at least.
me too
Its like any other sport people get cut just like in football
Very surprised Din Thomas is gone. He will be picked up very soon if not immediately by someone.
I thought I heard a while back that UFC was trying to land a network deal. Put the smaller shows on Spike, the average shows on the cable network, and the huge shows on PPV. I guess since a deal never fell through, they are cutting the roster.
wow, very surprised dinyero is cut. not surprised that speer got chopped. he’s too one dimensional. he needs to skulk around some smaller promo’s, get some more experience, train his ass off, gain some skills then make another crack at the big leagues.
Whats really funny is that people are only let out of their contract when it is Dana’s idea. The whole contract issue is BS! Why sign a contract when you can be fired at any time but Dana makes you honor your end when it suits him. Seems like a double edged sword for fighters. What happened to developing these younger fighters? Din and Tommy are both going to be a force in a couple of years and hopefully they tell Dana to go &^#* himself when he wants them back.
Din is not young, he just looks it.
Yea, Din was fighting Pulver back in 2001 as a young guy in his prime man, now with the blown knee and nothing but go getters in the LTWT division he wouldnt do much except be a good guy to beat because of his past. At 145 he could add to the WEC roster, him gainst Pulver rematch would be decent i guess, for rematch’s sake.
Looks are decieving I guess. He definetly does not look 32.
Yea, his first fight was in Oct 1998 . . . But he did just beat Clay Guida last year and is 3-2 in his last 5 fights, 22-8 overall. The knee must be playing a big part in this decision or just moving to the 145 lb weight class is all.
speer is surprising. i mean ed herman lost 2 in a row and he didnt get booted
Now im sure he knows that three in a row isnt exceptable . . . Its a nice way to send a message to all the fighters incase someone wants to pull a Starnes in the octagon.
Hehe,pull a stanes,good one lol,this could make it into a dictionary
And who is that bitch from Serra’s team that quit?(Rob Emerson) Last I heard he is under contract with UFC. These guys that got cut could destroy that pansy.
But who is that bi%#* from Serra’s team?(Rob Emerson)Last I seen he is under contract and was scheduled to fight at the next PPV till he got hurt.(BIG F&^@#$% surprise)Any of the guys he cut would mop the floor with him.
WORD!
Are you thinking of Joey Scarola? He isn’t working for Serra anymore, much less the UFC.
Bottom line if a contract is signed for X amount of fights the UFC should honor that just as they expect the fighters to.
I agree. A contract should bind both sides, but who knows if these guys got a “severance” package.
I agree with that. But what if kalib Starnes had like 3 more fights left on his contract . . . Would you wanna watch him for 3 more fights, taking up the airtime of good fighers? And Lutter as well, comes in out of shape aganst Rich, Doesnt make weight for a title shot . . . If i had to watch his fat *ss take up 3 more main card fights i would shoot myself! You know what i mean?
True so give them an undercard match against an up and comer. I am only saying that a contract should be honored by both sides 1 way or another.
Sad To See My Boy Din Let Go. I Hope He Keeps Fighting cause hes great to watch.
Yeah dude. I am a HUGE Din fan. That guy was amazing to watch. He would have won that Kenny florian fight had he not blown out his knee.
All these moves makes me wonder if they are having money issues. I heard a couple rumors that the UFC needed to do this to trim down so that they could make more money.
Doubt that has any truth but its what I heard.
I thought Speer got tapped via RNC in the final of TUF not TKO.