The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was live with The Ultimate Fighter Season 24 Finale this past Saturday night (December 3, 2016) and saw Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson make his ninth successful UFC Flyweight title defense with a unanimous-decision win over Tim Elliott. The event saw eight of 12 scheduled bouts hit the judges’ scorecards for a decision, many of which were wars that were in the running for the evening’s ‘Fight of the Night’ honors. Following the night of scraps in Las Vegas, let’s take a look at which of the competitors from the evening we may no longer see in action inside the Octagon… ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK Kailin Curran The Hawaiian flyweight came up short in a unanimous decision loss to promotional newcomer Jamie Moyle on the preliminary card of the evening. She showed improved cardio in this contest but was unable to stifle Moyle’s superior grappling en route to the decision defeat. Curran is now on a two-fight defecit inside the Octagon and 1-4 in her UFC career, so I think there is a good chance that she received a pink slip from the promotion following Saturday night’s defeat. I think she will likely surface in Invicta, where I expect her to have a .500-type of run. Elvis Mutapcic Mutapcic suffered a second-round TKO against Anthony Smith on the preliminary card of the evening. He dominated the first round of action, though that taxed him, and he was out of gas to start the second, where Smith started to take over and eventually land a fight ending blow. Mutapcic is now winless in three Octagon appearances, and I think he now stands a good chance of being released from the promotion. The 30-year-old is definitely on a decline, as just three years ago he was able to secure a unanimous decision victory over red-hot Sam Alvey in a five-round title fight under the MFC banner. This year, he came up short against Francimar Barroso, Kevin Casey and Smith. On a sidenote, Alvey defeated Casey just over three months ago. I feel confident we have seen the last of Mutapcic inside the Octagon and expect he will either reappear back on a World Series of Fighting card, or perhaps Bellator may welcome him with open arms. Regardless of where he goes, I don’t see him working his way back to the big show, not with his apparent decline.
