Tough day for Team Golden Glory.
Nearly a week after the world's largest fight promotion parted ways with Alistair Overeem, Martijn de Jong, head coach for the Dutch mixed martial arts gym, today (Aug. 3) tweeted that three more of his fighters have been released from Zuffa's Strikeforce and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) rosters.
Chief among them is former Strikeforce Women's 135-pound Champion Marloes Coenen (19-5), who was stripped of her title by Miesha Tate at last Saturday night's (July 30) Showtime event in Hoffman Estates, IL.
The departure of "Rumina," widely-considered one of the top female fighters in her weight class, is another crippling blow to the future of women's MMA, already on life-support since Zuffa's acquisition of Strikeforce.
Coenen has, and will likely continue, to pursue her career overseas.
Also getting the boot was Valentijn Overeem (29-26), who was pounded out by Chad Griggs at Strikeforce: "Overeem vs. Werdum" back on June 18. Losing "The Python" was considered a foregone conclusion once the "Demolition Man" skipped town, but his performance in Dallas against the "Grave Digger" certainly did him no favors.
Abu Dhabi grappling stud Jon Olav Einemo (6-2) was unsuccessful in his Octagon debut against Dave Herman at UFC 131 in Vancouver and won't be getting a chance to redeem himself after joining his Golden Glory brethren on the stateside chopping block.
UFC President Dana White shocked the MMA world back on March 12 when he revealed that Zuffa, parent company of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), was the proud new owner of what was widely considered the world's number two fight promotion.
While both Strikeforce and UFC continue to operate as separate entities, most of the MMA community expects Zuffa to eventually merge the brands much like it did with UFC and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) earlier this year.
Until then, it's "business as usual."
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