The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) went back to Chicago, IL for the fifth straight year and produced a night of entertaining scraps. The action is now behind us, so let’s take a look at which of the evening’s competitors we may no longer see in action inside the Octagon… ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK Frankie Saenz Saenz made his Octagon debut against Iuri Alcantara, upsetting the Brazilian as 7-to-1 underdog at the sportsbooks. He followed that with a split decision victory over Sirwan Kakai, but unfortunately his luck ended there, as he faced the stiffest test of his professional mixed martial arts caret in Urijah Faber his next time out, and he went on to lose that bout via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards. His next and latest outing inside the Octagon came at this past Saturday’s UFC on FOX 20 in Chicago, where he took on former WEC bantamweight champion and former UFC bantamweight title challenger Eddie Wineland and lost the bout via TKO in the third and final round of action. After getting his hand raised in his first two bouts, Saenz has now dropped two in a row and stands a decent chance of receiving a pink slip from the promotion. I would say it is 50/50 because his losses were to high level competition, though on the other hand, the latest win he got over Sirwan Kakai resultedin Kakai being released after just one loss, so it is tough to predict what the promotion will decide. Saenz has not shown to be a finisher and his only two victories have come on the scorecards, one of them resulting in an upset of someone they likely wanted to see get an impressive victory. I think Alcantara was supposed to get an impressive victory over Saenz but Saenz spoiled their plans. I think he deserves to stick around and get at least one more fight, but I won’t be surprised to see the UFC opt to part ways with him. Jim Alers The former Cage Warriors featherweight champion made his UFC debut on the heels of an eight fight winning streak and he took on fellow promotional newcomer Alan Omer, defeating him via split decision on the judges’ scorecards following three very competitive rounds of action. His next outing inside the Octagon saw him take on Chas Skelly, where he had his nine fight winning streak snapped, losing via knockout with only a second remaining in the second round of action. A No Contest due to accidental eye poke against Cole Miller followed that bout, and following that he took on Jason Knight at UFC on FOX 20 this past weekend, losing the bout via split decision on the judges’ scorecards following three competitive rounds. Though he came out on the losing end, he did manage to take home 50k with the evening’s ‘Fight of the Night’ honors. The loss puts him at three straight fights without a victory now and I think it is 50/50 whether the UFC keeps him around or not. Many fighters get cut after earning a ‘Fight of the Night’ check, so that does not really mean anything anymore. Alers shouldn’t feel safe following the loss to Knight.
