Unfortunately, several names have been released from the UFC.
It was first reported by Tom Feely of Sherdog that the promotion made four cuts from their roster: Andre Muniz, Justin Tafa, Irina Alekseeva, and Brogan Walker.
Muniz was a Dana White Contender Series fighter who came in with so much promise. The UFC Middleweight racked up five impressive wins in a row, but his streak shattered since his fight against Brendan Allen. Since then, Muniz had won only one of his last four fights.
Tafa was originally scheduled to fight on September 28th, but he was pulled from the bout due to missing weight. That came off the back end of the heavyweight pulling out of his June 28th fight against Jhonata Diniz for unknown reasons. Tafa hasn’t won a fight since 2023 as he’s currently on a two-fight skid. The former UFC Fighter made a statement after his cancelled bout noting that he was taking time away from the fight game.
"Taking time out of this fight game," Tafa wrote. "The body and mind needs time to recover, six major surgeries in the last three years does that to you. Time to enjoy the other fruits of life for now and enjoy watching my kids grow. Thank you @ufc had some good times in there."
Irina Alekseeva only secured one win throughout her UFC career. Alekseeva came into the company from her Bellator hype in 2021 and soundly beat Stephanie Egger via submission at UFC Fight Night: Song vs. Simon, but it was all downhill from there. She suffered three consecutive losses, with her recent one being against Bia Mesquita.
Brogan Walker is in the same boat; however, unlike the other three fighters, she hasn’t won a single UFC bout. Her last win was in 2021 in Invicta FC 44. Even then, that was her first win in two years. Walker lost all three of her fights and was especially dominated by Veronica Hardy.
Other than Tafa, none of the fighters have released a statement in regards to their UFC release. There's various reasons on why Dana White will release fighters, but this one seems pretty cut and dry as their performances just weren't up to par. It’s unknown if any of the released talents plan on fighting again, but here’s wishing the best to their future endeavors.