Bryan Battle Released from UFC After Former TUF Winner Missed Weight Multiple Times
The UFC released fighter Bryan Battle on Wednesday, according to ESPN's Brett Okamoto, after he missed weight in both December and ahead of last weekend's scheduled fight with Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC 319.
That fight was cancelled, and so was Battle's contract with the UFC shortly thereafter.
He spoke on missing weight earlier in the week during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show:
Battle was the middleweight tournament in 2021's The Ultimate Fighter and was on a three-match winning streak in the UFC, where he was 7-1 overall with a no contest. But his inability to make weight became a real concern.
In December, he ultimately beat Randy Brown in a welterweight match after missing weight. But he didn't have a fight for quite awhile before receiving an offer to face Rusiboev at middleweight, moving up in weight by a division.
"Circumstances aside, didn't make weight for the last one. It was kind of hard getting another fight," he told MMA Fighting at the time. "I told my agent, I'm not afraid of these dudes up at middleweight. I used to fight there. I'm a pretty big guy myself. I'm not afraid of these middleweights and as soon as I said that, a fight came as fast as you know what. I would love to go back down to welterweight at some point. Just because I feel like the story's not finished down there. I'm a prize fighter. Whoever they pay me to fight is who I'm going to fight."
But Battle again missed weight, the third time its happened during his time in the UFC. That was ultimately more than the fighting promotion was willing to stomach.
