The UFC Has Been Cutting Fighters All Year and Some of Them Are Finding Out From Fans on Instagram

A fan named Mario commented on Bruna Brasil's Instagram post last week. "UFC removed u from the roster," he wrote, followed by a confused emoji.

Her reply: "Really?"

And that's it. That's how a professional fighter who had competed on the UFC Seattle card five days earlier found out she no longer had a job. Not a phone call. Not an email. Not a text. A random dude named Mario on Instagram broke the news before anyone from the promotion bothered to.

And the thing is, Brasil isn't even the craziest story coming out of the UFC's roster purge this year. The promotion has been cutting fighters at a steady clip since January and the way some of these releases have been handled is genuinely wild. Guys who won their last fight getting cut. A 24 fight veteran released without ceremony. A fighter who missed weight by eight pounds. The strawweight champion's husband going 0-4. And now a woman who found out she was unemployed from an Instagram comment.

This is the UFC in 2026. $7.7 billion Paramount deal. Record bonuses. And fighters scrolling through their comments to find out if they still have a career lol.

The Brasil Situation Is the Worst One

Bruna Brasil fought Alexia Thainara on the early prelims at UFC Seattle on March 28. She lost by unanimous decision, 30-27 across all three scorecards. It was her third straight loss and dropped her UFC record to 3-5. Now listen I'm not saying the cut was completely un merited. Its true she didn't have a great run, but she had some real moments in the promotion, including a win over Molly McCann that nobody expected.

But three days later, the UFC announced they were cutting three fighters: Brasil, Antonio Trocoli, and Luana Carolina. Now this is standard roster management. Happens all the time. The promotion announces it through reporters, MMA media picks it up, and the fighters move on.

The problem though is that nobody told Brasil first. She found out because a fan saw the news on social media and went to her Instagram to ask about it. She had no idea. She'd fought on their card less than a week earlier, put her body on the line for fifteen minutes on their broadcast, flew home, and then learned she was fired from a stranger in her comments section.

"Really?" is all she could say in a moment like that. That's genuine confusion from someone who had no idea this was coming and is processing it in real time on a public platform. This woman sold everything she owned and moved across Brazil in 2019 to pursue MMA full time. She called it "all or nothing." She earned her UFC contract by head kicking someone unconscious on the Contender Series and called it "the best night of my life." And the promotion ended her chapter with less communication than a DoorDash driver gives you about your food.

The Full Body Count in 2026

Brasil isn't alone in this. The UFC has been trimming the roster aggressively all year and some of these cuts tell you a lot about how the promotion operates.

Javid Basharat won his last fight and still got cut in February. Let that sink in. The man went out there, did his job, got his hand raised, and weeks later he's off the roster. That's wasn't a performance issue. That's a business decision dressed up as roster management.

Alex Morono had fought 24 times in the UFC. He was a staple of the welterweight division for years. Not a contender, not a star, but a reliable veteran who always showed up and always fought. Now released in February. After 24 fights, the promotion decided they'd seen enough.

Luana Carolina missed weight by eight pounds ahead of UFC London. Eight. Not one or two pounds over, which happens and fighters get fined for it. Eight pounds. Her fight against Melissa Mullins got cancelled because of it. She had a solid 6-4 UFC record with real wins over Loopy Godinez and Priscila Cachoeira, but missing weight four times total was the final straw. Can't really argue with this one, but the pattern of weight misses suggests something systemic was going wrong with her camps.

Antonio Trocoli went 0-4 in the UFC. Zero wins in four fights. He's also Mackenzie Dern's husband, which made the whole situation awkward because the strawweight champion is still on the roster while her husband just got fired from the same company. Trocoli originally earned a Contender Series contract back in 2019 but got released weeks later for failing a drug test. He worked his way back, finally debuted in 2024, and lost every single fight. Sometimes the dream just doesn't work out.

Montserrat Rendon was 2-2 and fighting in the women's bantamweight division, which only has about 30 active fighters. Cutting someone with a .500 record in a division that shallow is a choice. There aren't exactly prospects lining up to fill that spot.

Jailton Almeida was once considered a legitimate heavyweight title prospect. He was finishing everyone. Then he lost two in a row and the UFC cut him. That's how fast it moves now. You're a future contender one year and unsigned the next.

And those are just the ones that made headlines. In March alone, the UFC also cut Kris Moutinho, Phil Rowe, Gavin Tucker, Erik Silva, and AJ Cunningham. In February it was Basharat, Morono, and Lucas Almeida. The roster is being churned through at a pace that makes you wonder if anyone's job is actually safe outside the top fifteen.

The Communication Problem

Here's the part that bothers me more than the cuts themselves. Cutting fighters is part of the business. Records don't lie. If you're losing more than you're winning, the promotion moves on. That's how professional sports work and nobody is entitled to a permanent roster spot. I completely understand this and agree with it.

But the WAY that fighters find out is a problem that the UFC has never seemed interested in fixing. Brasil found out from an Instagram comment. Other fighters have found out from the UFC Roster Watch account on Twitter before getting an official call. Reporters break the news on social media and the fighters see it at the same time as everyone else.

We covered Rousey calling the UFC "one of the worst places to go" for fighters a few weeks ago on here. The fighter pay conversation is important, but this is a different kind of disrespect. This isn't about money. This is about basic communication. A thirty second phone call is all it takes. A text message even. Something, anything, before a reporter tweets it out and a fan copy pastes it into your Instagram comments.

These people fight for a living man. They take punches and kicks and chokes so the promotion can sell subscriptions and fill arenas. The absolute minimum the UFC owes them is a heads up before the rest of the world finds out they've been let go.

What It Looks Like From the Outside

I think part of the reason this doesn't get more attention is that fans see "3-5 record" and think "well, she wasn't winning, what did she expect?" And on paper, that's totally fair. If you're not winning fights, you're going to get cut eventually.

But that framing ignores everything that goes into being a UFC fighter. The training camps that cost thousands of dollars. The weight cuts that destroy your body. The injuries that don't heal because you can't afford to take time off. The travel, the medicals, the media obligations, the social media presence the promotion expects you to maintain. All of that, and then you find out you're done because some guy named Mario tells you in a comment section.

Brasil's Fighting Nerds teammate Jean Silva is one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC right now. Carlos Prates is climbing the welterweight rankings. Caio Borralho is a legitimate middleweight contender. That gym is producing real talent. Brasil trained alongside all of them and still couldn't crack the code consistently. That doesn't make her story less worth telling. It makes it more honest.

Not every fighter is going to be a champion. Most of them won't even crack the rankings. But every single one of them made sacrifices to get there, and every single one of them deserves to hear "we're moving on" from a human being before they read it in their Instagram comments.

The UFC just signed a $7.7 billion TV deal. They raised bonuses to $100,000 per winner. They're planning a fight card at the White House. They can afford a phone call.

Thanks for riding with CageLore. Stay locked in!

Frequently Asked Questions About the UFC Roster Cuts

How did Bruna Brasil find out she was cut?

A fan commented on her Instagram post saying she'd been removed from the roster. Brasil replied "Really?" and the fan confirmed. She had fought at UFC Seattle five days earlier and had not been contacted by the UFC.

Who else was cut alongside Brasil?

Antonio Trocoli (0-4, Mackenzie Dern's husband) and Luana Carolina (6-4, missed weight by 8 pounds at UFC London). All three are Brazilian fighters.

How many fighters has the UFC cut in 2026?

The promotion has released multiple rounds of fighters. Notable cuts include Javid Basharat (won his last fight), Alex Morono (24-fight UFC veteran), Jailton Almeida (former title prospect), Montserrat Rendon (2-2 in a 30-fighter division), and several others across January through March.

What was Bruna Brasil's UFC record?

3-5 in the UFC with wins over Molly McCann and Shauna Bannon. She earned her contract with a head kick knockout on Dana White's Contender Series in September 2022.

Is this normal for the UFC?

Roster cuts happen regularly, but fighters and media have increasingly criticized the UFC's communication practices. Multiple fighters in recent years have reported learning of their release through social media or reporters rather than directly from the promotion.

What was Luana Carolina cut for?

She missed weight by eight pounds ahead of UFC London, causing her fight to be cancelled. She had missed weight four times total during her UFC run despite having a solid 6-4 record.