Another fighter is gone from the UFC. This time, Gray Maynard.
The lightweight has fought inside the octagon for over ten years, giving us memorable fights against talents such as Frankie Edgar, Clay Guida, Nate Diaz, and Kenny Florian.
The 40-year-old first entered the promotion through the Ultimate Fighter and had a strong undefeated streak until his UFC Lightweight Championship bout against Frankie Edgar at UFC 136. Since then, his record has been a mixed bag with Maynard taking more losses than wins.
His last fight was against Nik Lentz at UFC 229, with Maynard suffering a devastating TKO loss to the lightweight. Despite being let go from the promotion, the Ultimate Fighter contestant doesn’t appear to be upset over parting ways from the company, as Maynard believes that it was time for both sides to move on (transcript courtesy of
MMA Junkie):
“Man, it was time,” Maynard said.
“It’s been time for a while. And you know, great fights – I had a good time there. But it just really wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I was in my last contract with eight fights. At the beginning, I was in a nine-fight contract. So it’s been a lot of long holds, and there weren’t really a lot of options as I was coming up. Lately, there’s been a lot more options, and it was a mutual deal, and I just moved on.”
There is no word at this time as to where the fighter may sign next. We’ll keep you updated if Maynard ends up in another promotion in the future.