UFC cuts Roman Bogatov over triple-foul performance at UFC 251

One month after repeatedly fouling his way to a decision loss at UFC 251, Russian fighter Roman Bogatov has been released from his contract by the promotion.

“Yes, they told me today they had terminated the contract,” Bogatov told Russian news agency TASS. Bogatov’s manager, Sayat Abdrakhmanov, confirmed with the outlet that the decision was made because of the illegal blows thrown in his fight against Leonardo Santos.

Bogatov threw three illegal knees in that fight, with two going low and hitting Santos in the groin and then a third smashing his opponent in the head while grounded. Following that last blatant and dangerous foul, the referee docked Bogatov two points. The final score on the judges’ scorecards: 29–26, 29–26, and 29–26 in favor of Santos.

Bogatov entered UFC as an M-1 Lightweight champion off the strength of his suffocating grappling game, but struggled in his single UFC fight against Santos to take the fight to the ground. Several sloppy knees later and he’s being sent back to the minors with a bit of a black mark on his name.

Roman is the latest name seen on the chopping block. In the past week, several other problem fighters have been given their walking papers, including Ray Borg (who withdrew from numerous fights and missed weight multiple times), Eric Spicely (whose botched weight cut resulted in his last fight being called off), and Corey Anderson (who actually requested his release from UFC so he could take his services to Bellator).