The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was back in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada last Sunday (February 19, 2017) for the second time in promotional history with UFC Fight Night 105: Lewis vs. Browne, where five of 11 bouts ended inside the distance. The night of action is now in our rear view, so let’s take a look at which of the evening’s competitors we may no longer see going to work inside the Octagon… ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK Travis Browne Browne suffered a second-round ground-and-pound knockout at the hands of “The Black Beast” Derrick Lewis in the main event and is now on a three-fight losing streak, including a unanimous-decision loss to Fabricio Werdum and a first-round TKO loss versus Cain Velasquez. If this were a couple years ago, I would feel confident that the UFC would bring Browne back for another fight, especially considering the fact that he looked good in this fight until the bitter end. However, in the current penny-pinching WME-IMG era, they are likely to let him go, as he costs $120,000 to show. At this point, I would say it is 50/50 as to whether we’ll see “Hapa” back in action inside the Octagon. Hector Lombard Lombard came up short in a unanimous-decision loss to Johny Hendricks on the main card and is riding a three-fight losing streak as well. Considering he does not come cheap, I think there is a fair chance that the promotion will opt to part ways with him too. If that is the case, I would expect Lombard to head back to Bellator, where he once held the middleweight title. This is another situation where I think the outcome is 50/50. Sam Sicilia Sicilia lost a unanimous decision to Canadian promotional newcomer Gavin Tucker on enemy territory and has also dropped three in a row, which is the longest losing streak of his professional mixed martial arts career. Following a knockout loss to Doo Ho Choi, a submission loss to Gabriel Benitez and now a one-sided unanimous decision loss to Tucker, I think there is a good chance that Sicilia receives his pink slip from the promotion. I expect we’ll be seeing him joining Bellator’s featherweight division. Alessandro Ricci Ricci suffered a first-round knockout at the hands of Paul Felder and has lost two straight, including a unanimous-decision loss to Jeremy Kennedy in what was the UFC debut for both fighters. I feel confident that Ricci will be cut from the promotion following only two losses and without ever picking up a victory in the UFC. The main reason for that is because he simply quit in this fight when getting his nose broken, which would have been easier to accept if he were primarily a grappler. But he isn’t, he is a striker, and we’ve seen countless fighters tough it out through broken noses, many of them going on to win their fights. So when the UFC brass sees a fighter simply give up under such circumstances, it becomes an easier decision for them to make when it comes down to the chopping block.
