UFC President Dana White warned that the promotion will be going through major cuts of talent in the upcoming days, losing up to 60 fighters in total.
The statement came a day after news broke that former interim UFC Middleweight Champion Yoel Romero parted ways with the promotion.
“We’re gonna go through some serious cuts here at the end of the year. Probably gonna have 60 cuts coming up before the 1st of the year [January 1st],” said White during the post-fight press conference for Saturday’s UFC “Fight Night” card.
White said he considers the UFC roster “inflated” at the moment.
The overall talent pool in the UFC has increased greatly through 2020. 120 fighters have debuted in the year so far, with five more scheduled in the next two events.
75 fighters have reportedly been released by the UFC in that timespan. While at the moment the UFC are trending towards an increasing roster size, the predicted cuts of 60 more fighters would reverse that.
The previous year for the promotion reflected an increase in roster size, as 139 fighters debuted and 107 were reportedly released.
The UFC roster has seen an influx of newcomers recently, as debuting and re-debuting talent have often gotten the call for short-notice fights due to COVID-19 positive fighters dropping out of bouts.
A big source for incoming UFC talent has been the “Dana White’s Contender Series” show.
UFC recently ran a season their fourth season of “Dana White’s Contender Series,” a show which has been a pipeline for prospects to get signed to the promotion. 48 fighters were signed on the show, shattering the previous number of talent picked up on the three prior seasons.
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