Dana White cuts two UFC fighters from roster as trimming continues

Two more fighters have been cut from the UFC roster in advance of the Fight Night event in Macau this weekend.

UFC rolls into the Galaxy Arena on Saturday, with a bantamweight fight between Song Yadong and Deiveson Figueiredo topping the card.

Austen Lane and Jesus Aguilar are no longer on the roster. According to Heavy.com sources, Lane indicated his intention to retire from MMA before the decision to remove him.

Aguilar, 30, was scheduled to face Rei Tsuruya at UFC Macau but withdrew last week.

The Mexican fighter drops from the roster with a 4-3 record. He lost his last flyweight bout by unanimous decision against Sumudaerji in March.

Lane has lost all but two of his UFC fights, one a win and one a no contest.

The former NFL defensive end, who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears, made his UFC debut in 2023 after six professional wins in a row.

He made the grade thanks to a win by TKO in Dana White's Contender Series in September 2022.

"Lane was removed from the roster after he told the UFC he is retiring from MMA," reports Heavy.com.

"Immediately after retiring from the NFL, Lane went into amateur MMA, and he went 5-1 with five knockout wins while fighting for the Combat Night promotion, a Florida-based regional development league.

"In 2017, Lane made his pro MMA debut. He won his first four MMA fights by knockout before getting an opportunity on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018, but he was knocked out by fellow former NFL player Greg Hardy."

UFC is trimming the roster in a bumper recruitment year

Like any operation in combat sports or in sport more generally, UFC is in constant need of fresh blood.

It has the mechanisms in place to find new fighters. Getting them onto a packed roster is another story.

"With the UFC holding 50 more fights this summer on [Dana White's Contender Series], the promotion needs to make more room for incoming fighters," reports Heavy.com.

"When fighters like Lane retire, it makes the UFC’s job easier to just remove them from the roster with no issues.

"But the promotion is surely going to have to make some tough decisions in the coming months to pare down the roster."

UFC returns to the United States for a Fight Night event in the first week of June before tickling Donald Trump's ego by holding UFC Freedom 250 in what he considers his garden eight days later.