The mystery surrounding Jose Maria Tome’s situation in the UFC is finally over.
Following several reports stating that “No Chance” has or hasn’t been released from the promotion following back-to-back losses in 2013, his manager Marcelo Brigadeiro confirmed to MMAFighting.com that he’s no longer signed with the UFC.
Tome (33-5, 2 no-contests), who is still listed on UFC’s official website, entered the UFC riding a 16-fight undefeated streak, but went 0-2 inside the Octagon.
“Now it’s time to sit down and analyze other offers,” Brigadeiro told MMAFighting.com. “We’ll see what he should have done to win (in the UFC) and move on. He has no date to fight again yet.”
Tome signed with the promotion to replace Phil Harris against John Lineker on short notice at UFC 163 in Rio de Janeiro, last August. Lineker, who missed weight for the flyweight fight, defeated Tome via TKO. Tome returned to the Octagon three months later to fight Dustin Ortiz at UFC Fight Night 32, but suffered another TKO.
“I think that, despite not winning (in the UFC), he did what we expected to do as far as being aggressive, doing great fights,” he said. “When you get to a promotion as big as the UFC, you’re under pressure to deliver and sometimes you can’t be more cautious, so you don’t win.
“Jose Maria is a great athlete, he pleases the crowd and has done great during trainings at RFT. I can’t say what went wrong, actually. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to happen right now.”