UFC Fight Night 60 in Colorado wrapped up a long and exciting extended weekend of mixed martial arts, and with all the action in our rear-view, let’s take a look at which fighters we may no longer see compete inside the Octagon… ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: Patrick Walsh Walsh was a contestant on season 19 of The Ultimate Fighter who dropped down from heavyweight to the light heavyweight division to compete on the show. He came up short in the quarter finals of the tournament, losing a unanimous decision to eventual tournament winner Corey Anderson. In his Octagon debut, he took on fellow TUF cast-mate Daniel Spohn and defeated him via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards following three uneventful rounds of action. After picking up a win in his official 205-pound debut, he made the decision, for one reason or another, to drop further down to the 185-pound division. The Ohio State wrestler failed to make weight for the middleweight contest, stepping on the scale at 191.5lbs. His opponent Dan Kelly was unhappy, but he agreed to keep the fight on, and with it pocket 20% of Walsh’s fight purse. Much like Walsh’s Octagon debut, his fight against Kelly was again very uneventful. Despite being a competitive, back and forth fight, it was quite lackluster and drew boos from the crowd. After three rounds of action, it could have been anybody’s fight, but unfortunately for Walsh, the judges’ ruled it a unanimous decision for Kelly, one of them surprisingly scoring it 30-27 in favor of the Australian. Walsh is now 1-1 inside the Octagon, and normally that would mean a fighter is safe, but considering he has now been involved in two dreadful fights, failed to make weight for his last fight and lost it, there is a good chance he will be receiving his walking papers from the promotion. It was his first drop to 185-pounds, so I could see the UFC deciding to let him slide, which would have been the case, had he not performed so poorly in the fight. I could see them keeping him around for one more, but I think it’s more likely that we’ve seen the last of Walsh inside the Octagon. Rodrigo de Lima The Brazilian is now 0-2 in the UFC, having dropped a second round TKO to Neil Magny after winning the first round and most recently a unanimous decision to Efrain Escudero at last night’s UFC Fight Night 60 in Colorado. After debuting at 170-pounds, he dropped down to his natural weight-class of 155-pounds and many picked him to defeat The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 winner in Escudero. Things didn’t go that way, however, as Escudero got the better of de Lima in every aspect of the game, ultimately delivering arguably the best performance of his UFC career. Having dropped two in a row, I think it is a coin-flip as to whether the UFC decides to keep him around or send him packing. Tim Elliott After dropping a unanimous decision to John Dodson in his promotional debut, Elliott picked up a pair of unanimous decisions of his own against Jared Papazian and Louis Gaudinot, respectively. His luck unfortunately ran out there, as he followed that up with a unanimous decision loss to Ali Bagautinov, a first round guillotine choke to Joseph Benavidez and most recently a unanimous decision to Zach Makovsky at last night’s UFC Fight Night 60 in Colorado. The RFA veteran put on a solid performance but ultimately came up short on the judges’ scorecards, largely due to the fact that he kept finding himself in bottom position to Makovsky’s suffocating offensive wrestling. After losing to John Dodson in his promotional debut, UFC match-maker Sean Shelby told Elliott that if he fights 100 times in the UFC and loses 100 times, he will still have a job if he always fights like that. Well, I think he delivered on that, as his fight against “Fun Size” was arguably the most entertaining of the evening. However, the reality is that he has lost three in a row and is now 2-4 in the UFC. I think there is a good chance Shelby will stay true to his word and the UFC will keep him around, but it wouldn’t be the safest bet. Although keeping in mind how extremely thin the flyweight division is, giving him another shot wouldn’t be the toughest call to make.
