Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Rafael Cavalcante’s disappointing run with the UFC has reportedly come to an end.
Six years ago, Rafael Cavalcante stopped “King Mo” Lawal to become Strikeforce’s new light heavyweight champion. After losing his first defense to Dan Henderson, “Feijao” wrecked Yoel Romero with a flying knee for what still stands to date as the only loss of Romero’s career. Now, after a failed drug test in Strikeforce, as well as a stretch of just 1 win in 5 fights, Feijao is apparently finished as a UFC fighter. Matheus Costa of Brazil’s Olimpo MMA reported on Saturday night that the UFC has handed Feijao is walking papers.
Feijao’s (12-7, 1 NC) UFC run was nothing short of disastrous. He faded badly in his debut against Thiago Silva and was knocked out at the end or the 1st round back in June 2013. The 35-year-old did pick up his only UFC win just a few months later, quickly forcing Igor Pokrajac to tap to strikes in just 78 seconds. Since then, it’s been all downhill over the past 3 years, as Feijao was easily beaten by Ryan Bader in 2014, stopped with elbows by Patrick Cummins in 2015, and unable to capitalize on Ovince Saint Preux’s ankle injury this past February. The OSP showing was glaringly poor, as Feijao had opportunities to pull off an upset win with his opponent hobbled, but he was decidedly tepid in rounds 2-3 and offered zilch off of his back en route to a decision loss.
Meanwhile, Feijao isn’t the only Brazilian who is apparently no longer with the UFC. TUF Brazil 1’s Daniel Sarafian has also reportedly been sent packing after just 2 wins in his 6 bouts inside the Octagon. Sarafian (9-6) made it to the finals of the first season of TUF Brazil, but was unable to compete due to injury and was replaced by Sergio Moraes, whom he KO’d in the semifinals. The 33-year-old made his UFC debut in January 2013, losing a FOTN split decision to C.B. Dollaway. After choking out Eddie Mendez, Sarafian was re-booked to face original TUF Brazil 1 final opponent Cezar Ferreira, who would also beat him by split decision. A move to welterweight ended in an upset submission loss to Kiichi Kunimoto, sending him back to middleweight. Sarafian won against Antonio dos Santos when dos Santos injured his finger, but was most recently KO’d by Oluwale Bamgbose at UFC Pittsburgh on February 21st.
Believe it or not, Feijao and Sarafian have both been fighting professionally for 10 years, although Feijao has 5 more pro fights than Sarafian. It’s not really surprising that these two are out of the UFC with their combined 3-8 records.
As always, we’ll keep you up to date on any additional roster cuts that roll in (if any) over the next several days as we close out March.