The UFC is continuing to shrink their roster, cutting a hand full of fighters in recent days, according to Five Ounces of Pain, including Rich Clementi, Luigi Fioravanti, Derek Downey, Christian Wellisch, and Eddie Sanchez. This move not only downsizes the UFC’s massive roster, but will also put the fear of being cut on the minds of many struggling UFC fighters.

Luigi Fioravanti is an American Top Team member that has fought to a .500 record by going 2-2 in his last four fights. He was defeated by 170-pound up and comer Anthony Johnson via first round TKO at UFC: Ultimate Fight Night 17 last Saturday. Although this didn’t appear to be a terrible loss, it does appear to be the one that cost Luigi his job.

The magic number to be worried about being released seems to be two-straight as Clementi, Wellisch, and Sanchez all had two-straight losses.

Rich Clementi is not far off from a 3 fight win streak that had him starting to climb the lightweight rankings. That streak came to a crashing halt as he then lost his next two bouts. Fresh off of losses to Gray Maynard and Gleison Tibau he is now on the outside looking in.

Christian Wellisch's string of bad luck started with a loss to Shane Carwin and continued against Jake O'Brien while Eddie Sanchez suffered losses to Justin McCully and Antoni Hardonk.

Downey lost his UFC debut at UFC: Ultimate Fight Night 17 last weekend against fellow newcomer Nick Catone and will not get another chance to prove to the UFC brass that he is worth keeping.

The UFC is known for having the best fighters in the world and one way to make sure they live up to this reputation is to drop fighters that may be struggling or have not shown signs of being a true contender. Luigi Fioravanti and Rich Clementi have both shown signs of being at least a mid-tier fighter, but the UFC didn’t agree. Other fighters that could be on the way out in the future could be Pete Sell (lost 4 out of last 5), Kendall Grove (lost 2 out of last 3), and Jorge Rivera (lost 5 out of last 9).

Source: mmafrenzy.com