Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Sosoli was recently sentenced to 22 months in Australian prison for punching a man outside a bar.
Ben Sosoli’s ill-advised punch outside the Octagon has assured that he won’t be back inside of one anytime soon.
Promotion officials confirmed to MMA Fighting that the heavyweight has been released, along with Australian flyweight Nadia Kassem and American middleweight Dequan Townsend.
Sosoli was sentenced to 22 months in prison for punching a man outside a bar in Melbourne. The man suffered a facial injury serious enough to require surgery. As far as his actual UFC career, Sosoli (7-3, 2 NCs) had a loss to Greg Hardy overturned to a no contest due to Hardy’s illegal in-fight inhaler use, then he lost by first-round TKO to Marcos Rogerio de Lima this past February.
Kassem (5-2) won her UFC debut over Alex Chambers back in 2017, but suffered consecutive defeats to Montana De La Rosa and Ji Yeon Kim back in 2019.
Lastly, Townsend (21-12) lost all four of his UFC appearances, most recently suffering a TKO defeat to Dusko Todorovic at last weekend’s UFC Fight Island 4.
All things considered, none of these cuts are surprising and in Sosoli’s case he might have already been eyed for release even if he hadn’t been sentenced to jail.