Ultimately, Robelis Despaigne didn’t deliver upon his considerable hype.
The Cuban heavyweight was one of seven fighters that recently parted ways with the UFC. The others were as follows: Matheus Nicolau, Jessica Penne, Tamires Vidal, Vinicius Salvador, Charalampos Grigoriou and Jesse Butler.
MMAFighting.com confirmed the cuts after an initial report from Twitter account UFC Roster Watch. It is unclear if the aforementioned fighters were released or if the promotion simply elected not to renew their contracts.
Despaigne entered the UFC to much acclaim thanks to five first-round finishes on the regional circuit. That fanfare only increased when “The Bad Boy” stopped Josh Parisian in just 18 seconds in his Octagon debut at UFC 299. However, back-to-back losses against Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Austen Lane left plenty to be desired — particularly when it came to his lack of defensive wrestling ability.
Nicolau, meanwhile, exits the promotion on the heels of successive losses to Asu Almabaev, Alex Perez and Brandon Royval. Prior to that, the 31-year-old Brazilian had been victorious in seven of eight Octagon appearances across two separate UFC stints.
Out of the rest of the group, Penne was arguably the most accomplished UFC athlete. A former Invicta Fighting Championships atomweight title holder, the 41-year-old appeared on the “The Ultimate Fighter 20” before challenging for strawweight gold at UFC Fight Night 69, where she suffered a third-round TKO loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk on June 20, 2015.
