In the end, Robelis Despaignes never managed to live up to his great hype.
The Cuban heavyweight was one of seven fighters to recently part ways with the UFC. The other members are: Mateus Nicolau, Jessica Penne, Tamirez Vidal, Vinicius Salvador, Charampos Grigoriou and Jesse Butler.
MMAFighting.com confirmed the cuts following initial reports from Twitter account UFC Roster Watch. It is unclear whether the aforementioned players were released or if the promotion simply chose not to renew their contracts.
Despaignes entered the UFC to great acclaim with five first-round finishes on the regional circuit. The fanfare grew even louder when “The Bad Boy” stopped Josh Parisian in just 18 seconds in his Octagon debut at UFC 299. But back-to-back losses to Waldo Cortez-Acosta and Austin Lane left a lot to be desired, especially when the fight ended. I noticed his lack of defensive wrestling ability.
Meanwhile, Nikolaou will withdraw from the promotion due to consecutive losses to As Almabaev, Alex Perez, and Brandon Roybal. Prior to that, the 31-year-old Brazilian had won seven of eight Octagon appearances in two separate stints in the UFC.
Of the rest of the fighters in the group, Penne was probably the most accomplished UFC athlete. The 41-year-old former Invicta Fighting Championship atomweight titleholder challenged for strawweight gold at UFC Fight Night 69 after appearing on “The Ultimate Fighter 20,” but on June 20 She lost by third-round TKO to Joanna Jedrzejczyk. , 2015.
