Liz Carmouche Says UFC Cut Her Because She Kept Beating Prospects
One notable piece of news that emerged last week was that former UFC title challenger Liz Carmouche was cut from the company.
Carmouche had only just fought for the women’s flyweight title in a losing attempt against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC Uruguay back in August. She had won four of her last five fights going into that bout.
But what was even more surprising was that she was cut while doing promotional work for the UFC in Washington D.C. She expanded on what happened in an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday:
“It’s been interesting,” she said. “I was out there in Washington D.C. so I had a lot of people that worked for the UFC just express their embarrassment and surprise, everything that occurred, just apologize. I just had to keep reassuring them, ‘You guys didn’t do anything, I have no hard feelings against you.’
“So it’s been interesting just to have so many differences. It seems like the communication between the head and the body were cut off. I just experienced that first hand.”
The reason why she was cut is even more bewildering. According to Carmouche, it was because she kept beating prospects in the flyweight division. In the process, the UFC couldn’t build up the division the way they wanted to:
“Since I’ve been with the organization, I had a lot of difficulty getting fights. … It’s because it seems like all the opponents I’ve been offered have turned down all the fights,” she explained. “… Constantly we’re just told everyone is saying no. And the reason they [UFC] gave is they’re really trying to build up the division and every female they’ve brought into the 125 pound division, I’ve been able to beat them.
“So it’s not really giving them the opportunity to build up the division the way they wanted to. So unfortunately, for the well-being of the division, they had to cut me to give me an opportunity to go elsewhere and get the fights I need.”
In a way, this isn’t shocking. After all, Colby Covington recently claimed the UFC was ready to cut him despite being on a win streak.
However, what do you make of Carmouche’s revelation?
