With the merging of the WEC and UFC rosters, many of the best fighters in the world are now under the roof of one promotion, leaving fans excited for some of the possible matchups for the upcoming year that weren’t possible before the union of the two organizations.
With the merger of the two lightweight divisions it was inevitable that the axe would begin falling among the 155 lbs fighters.
On Tuesday the first fighters to fall victim to the UFC pruning were lightweights Jamie Varner (16-5-2) and Chris Horodecki (16-3). Varner was submitted by Shane Roller in his last WEC appearance at WEC 53 earlier this month. Horodecki was also defeated at the same event by Donald Cerrone who won via triangle choke.
News of Varner’s release was first reported by PunchDrunkGamer.com on Tuesday.
“I am ready for 2011, there will be some changes in my game. It has been a nice ride with the WEC but its time for a change. Perhaps UFC will be in my future down the road… We shall see!.”
While MMAjunkie.com reported Horodecki’s release earlier on Tuesday also.
“One door closes and another one opens. I’ll be back sooner than later…We’ll get a couple fights and do what we do.”
Varner is a former WEC lightweight champion who has fallen on hard times since losing his title to Ben Henderson at WEC 46 last January. Varner put together a 0-3-1 record, losing his last two dropping fights to Roller and also to Donald Cerrone at WEC 51. The draw was against Kamal Shalorus at WEC 49 and the other loss was of course to Henderson at WEC 46.
Horodecki broke into the WEC in December of 2009 after putting together a 14-1 record which included a strong 8-1 run in the now defunct IFL promotion. The Canadian would lose his WEC debut to Anthony Njokuani at WEC 45 and would go on to rattle off two straight wins against Danny Downes at WEC 49, and Ed Ratcliff at WEC 53, before losing to Cerrone.