Shana Dobson and Jordan Espinosa become latest fighters cut by UFC
UFC women’s flyweight Shana Dobson and men’s flyweight Jordan Espinosa have become the latest fighters to receive their walking papers.
UFC president Dana White said late last year that the world’s leading MMA promotion would be cutting up to 60 fighters, and so far the organization has stuck true to its word. Near the end of 2020, veteran middleweights Anderson Silva and Yoel Romero were cut, and that followed up with a number of other less notable releases. Since the start of 2021, the UFC has started to get back into a roster-cutting mode, with heavyweights Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem getting cut last week. We now have two more fighters joining them on the cut list, as MMAFighting.com has confirmed that both Dobson and Espinosa have been released by the UFC.
Dobson (4-5) first joined the UFC back in 2017 after competing on “The Ultimate Fighter: A New World Champion.” She knocked out Ariel Beck in her promotional debut but would then drop three straight fights to Lauren Mueller, Sabina Mazo, and Priscila Cachoeira before pulling off one of the greatest upsets in MMA history when she finished top prospect Mariya Agapova. That was an incredible comeback by Dobson and it earned her a lot of respect in the MMA community, but after getting finished by Casey O’Neill in February, the UFC has decided to cut ties with her.
Espinosa (15-9, 1 NC) joined the UFC in 2019 after two stints on Dana White’s Contender Series. He defeated Eric Shelton in his promotional debut before losing back-to-back fights to Matt Schnell and Alex Perez. A win over Mark de la Rosa got Espinosa back into the win column, but he’s since dropped back-to-back fights to David Dvorak and Tim Elliott. Following the lopsided-loss to Elliott at UFC 259 — a fight where Elliott made several accusations about Espinosa-involved domestic violence — the promotion decided to sever ties with Espinos and they released him.
Where do you think Shana Dobson and Jordan Espinosa go after being the latest cuts by the UFC?
