The newest round of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster cuts might include some familiar names.
According to a report by TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter, UFC has decided to part ways with Luke Sanders, Anthony Birchak, Aalon Cruz, Jordan Griffin, Bartosz Fabinski, and KB Bhullar. This is part of UFC’s ongoing roster cuts as they get rid of talent no longer useful to the promotion.
The following athletes have been removed from the UFC rankings pool: Luke Sanders, Anthony Birchak, Aalon Cruz, Jordan Griffin, Bartosz Fabinski and KB Bhullar.
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) May 7, 2021
Out of those mentioned above, Sanders is one of the names that stick out the most. The bantamweight veteran burst onto the UFC scene back in 2016 to submit Maximo Blanco and push his undefeated MMA record to 10-0. After that, the wheels began to fall off as Sanders encountered stiffer competition. Since his UFC debut over five years ago, “Cool Hand” has turned in a 2-5 record with submission losses to Iuri Alcantara, Rani Yahya, and Nate Maness. Sanders is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Felipe Colares earlier this month at UFC Vegas 25.
Another notable name in this recent round of cuts is Griffin, who is coming off a decision loss to Luis Saldana at UFC on ABC 2. The 31-year-old veteran earned a UFC contract after turning in an impressive submission win on Dana White’s “Contender Series” back in 2018. Unfortunately, “Native Psycho” struggled under the bright lights of the Octagon after going just 1-4 as a member of the featherweight division. Griffin was able to capture a Performance of the Night award with his submission win over T.J. Brown back in Feb. 2020.
Unfortunately, this will not be the last round of cuts for UFC fighters this year. The promotion has been dropping fighters like flies since a massive cut to end 2020 and have even parted ways with notable draws like Anderson Silva, Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, and Diego Sanchez earlier this year.