UFC Releases Heavyweight Grinder Jared Rosholt

Jared Rosholt, a successful but unexciting MMA heavyweight, has been released from the UFC's roster.

Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com broke the news Wednesday afternoon, citing an unnamed UFC official. Neither Rosholt nor UFC officials have made any public comment regarding Rosholt's status with the company.

Suspicions over a potential release first arose on social media, particularly from MMA reporter Steve Jeffery (h/t Mookie Alexander of Bloody Elbow), when the UFC removed Rosholt from the official rankings:

"

May be old news, but haven't seen anyone mention it. Jared Rosholt's been removed from the UFC Rankings index.

— stevejeffery (@stevejeffery) March 30, 2016"

Rosholt engendered plenty of opinions, both positive and negative, during his eight-fight tenure with the world's premier MMA promotion.

The three-time All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State went 6-2 under the UFC banner. Even so, the 29-year-old Rosholt (14-3) drew a lot of detractors for a grinding and risk-averse style that involved a lot of dominant clinch control but nary a shred of offense.

To some extent, at least, he appeared aware of the criticism. Before his February 6 tangle with Roy Nelson, Rosholt said in an interview with MMAJunkie.com's Matt Erickson and John Morgan that his haters needed to "get a life."

Unfortunately, the fight with Nelson didn't go Rosholt's way. In a dull affair that was characteristic of Rosholt's efforts, Nelson took a unanimous-decision win in the co-main event at UFC Fight Night 82. 

It will be interesting to see which, if any, MMA promotions attempt to sign Rosholt from here. On one hand, he is a powerful and talented competitor. On the other hand, he does not appear to hold major drawing power. Barring a major overhaul of his style—something that has not occurred yet during a five-year pro MMA career—that may not be poised to change any time soon.