Bryan Caraway and Joseph Morales join another list of names to leave the UFC.
UFC veteran Bryan Caraway and flyweight Joseph Morales are among just a handful of names who have been released by the UFC.
In addition to Caraway and Morales, MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz confirmed that light heavyweight Abdul-Kerim Edilov and heavyweight Dmitry Smoliakov are no longer on the UFC roster.
Caraway’s departure was revealed by South Korean promotion Battlefield Fighting Championship on Monday. “Kid Lightning” went 6-4 during his almost eight-year UFC career, picking up wins against the likes of Aljamain Sterling and Eddie Wineland during his time in the promotion.
Aaron Bronsteter of TSN reported Morales’ exit. After winning his UFC debut against Roberto Sanchez in August of 2017, Morales (9-2) lost his next two fights against Deveison Figueiredo and Eric Shelton and was subsequently released from the promotion.
It’s not yet understood if Edilov and Smoliakov were released or if their UFC exits were on their own terms. Edilov (17-4) won his UFC debut against Bojan Mihajlovic by second-round TKO in September 2017. Meanwhile Smoliakov (9-3) was slated by president Dana White for his performance in his last fight against Greg Hardy, the Russian lost all three of his UFC appearances.
The UFC also recently cut several other fighters such as Elias Theodorou, former title challenger Wilson Reis and Eric Shelton.