Nigeria’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) duo of Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman have survived a massive clear out announced by the body’s president, Dana White, who believes the current array of fighters on the cards is overloaded, megasportsarena.com reports.
In a bid to reduce the number of contenders in UFC, White announced at the weekend that a number of stragglers and top fighters will be dropped, but he aptly left out of Adesanya (The Last Style Bender) and Usman (The Nigerian Nightmare), who are both champions in their respective weight categories.
Adesanya and Usman apparently have their continued unbeaten statuses and belts to thank for emerging unscathed from the purge, as White acknowledged that, while the cuts are necessary to prune the roster, the UFC is having one of its best years, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
He added at the UFC Vegas 16 press conference that he was excited seeing some of the stellar performances of the night, but he also admitted worries over increasing instances of bouts being canceled because of COVID-19.
The UFC boss further stated following Saturday’s bouts in Las Vegas, that the board had arrived at a decision to cut top five ranked middleweight, Yoel Romero from the roster, as White also indicated that the multiple-time title challenger was just the first of numerous cuts set to some.
White said: “Yoel has lost four of his last five. He’s 44 years old. It’s not just Yoel. We’re going to go through some serious cuts here at the end of the year. We’re probably going to have 60 cuts before the first of the year.
“Our roster is very inflated right now. We’re going to have some big cuts coming before the end of the year. You’re going to see a lot of names going here in the next several weeks.”
