Report: TUF 16 winner Colton Smith among five fighters released from UFC

Disclaimer: This information is all based on updates to the UFC.com lists of active fighters. Profiles will very likely still exist for each fighter as the UFC retains a database of all former competitors, but these fighters no longer appear on the UFC roster lists themselves. It often takes a day or so for roster changes to become apparent, so some fighters may still remain listed for the short term. All information in this post is gained through UFCFIGHTERSiNFO, a twitter account that uses a ruby script to check the UFC's website for changes.

It's been awhile since the UFC removed several fighters off of its 500+ fighter roster, but it appears that over the weekend they let go of the following: TUF 16 champ Colton Smith, Pat Healy, Estevan Payan, Dave Galera, and Chris Indich.

[Deleted] Estevan Payan (Feather) [Deleted] Colton Smith (Light) [Deleted] Pat Healy (Light) http://t.co/GeU9kLzLL9

— UFCFIGHTERSiNFO (@UFCFIGHTERSiNFO) July 25, 2014

[Updated] Sheldon Westcott Middle => Welter [Deleted] Dave Galera (Bantam) [Deleted] Chris Indich (Welter) http://t.co/GeU9kLzLL9

— UFCFIGHTERSiNFO (@UFCFIGHTERSiNFO) July 25, 2014

Again, these roster moves have not been made official, but typically when UFCFIGHTERSiNFO runs their script to scan additions/deletions, confirmation comes shortly thereafter.

None of these releases is particularly surprising. Colton Smith lost 3 straight after winning TUF 16, which unfortunately gives him the mark of being the worst ever winner of the long-running reality competition. Pat Healy dropped 4 in a row in addition to failing a drug test that took away his win over Jim Miller at UFC 159, while Messrs. Payan, Galera, and Indich went a combined 0-6.

There are a couple of other cuts that were made in the past few months that did not receive much press attention and have otherwise slipped under the radar. Featherweight Daniel Pineda was given his pink slip in June following a defeat to Robert Whiteford at UFC 171, his 4th in his last 5 fights. Pineda has since been re-signed by Legacy FC. Middleweight Jared Hamman was axed in February after losing 3 straight fights, which included a submission loss to Magnus Cedenblad at UFC 164 last August.