M. Rio (photo) was released by Ultimate after four fights. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
“Black Friday” is the day that follows the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States and on which stores offer the biggest discounts of the year. If this is the meaning for North American retailers, for several Ultimate athletes the name can be synonymous with March 28, 2014. This is because there is no date, no less than seven fighters have had their departure from the organization confirmed.
The most famous of them is lightweight Mike Rio, participant in the 15th season of the reality show The Ultimate Fighter: TUF Live. Rio, who won just his first fight in the UFC and was coming off three consecutive defeats, couldn't resist the cleanup of the organization's roster. The person who was also fired after three consecutive defeats was the Chinese Albert Cheng, even though only one of them was as an Ultimate athlete.
Two other fighters, the heavyweight Walt Harris and middleweight Brian Houston, were released after losing the two fights they had as Ultimate athletes. But no other category lost as many names as the bantamweight division, with three layoffs in total. The Japanese Shunichi Shimizu and the North Americans Edwin Figeroa and Ramiro “Junior” Hernandez were cut from the division.
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