Lucas Alexander was with the UFC for nearly three years, and almost nothing went well for the 29-year-old Brazilian. On Wednesday, the UFC’s brass decided to cut ties with Alexander and three others in the latest roster sweep.
According to UFC Roster Watch, Alexander and Caolan Loughran were removed from the UFC’s roster.
Full ContactMTWF reported the UFC also parted ways with Cortavious Romious and Pedro Falcao. Clearly, it was not a good day to be a lower-tiered fighter in the smaller weight classes.
During Alexander’s UFC run, he was 1-3. Most recently, he lost to Bogdan Grad via second-round TKO on February 1. Alexander missed weight for that fight by 2.5 pounds. Alexander hadn’t fought since November 2023 when was stopped in the first round by Jeka Saragih. Alexander missed weight by two pounds ahead of that fight which forced it to be contested at a catchweight.
Alexander’s only win under the UFC banner came in March 2023 when he earned a unanimous decision victory over Steven Peterson. In his promotional debut, Alexander was submitted in the first round by Joanderson Brito back in October 2022.
The UFC’s latest roster moves is yet another reminder of how quickly a fighter’s place on the promotion’s roster can be snatched away for poor performance. This most recent wave of releases affected multiple fighters across lighter divisions, which are traditionally the most talent-rich divisions in the sport–besides flyweight.
While Alexander’s exit doesn’t come as a surprise based on his results, the combination of subpar performance and questionable professionalism–relating to the weight misses–likely factored into the decision.
At 29, Alexander’s career isn’t over, but based on the results of his fights, the inactivity and the problems making weight, it sounds like he may have some serious questions to answer about his future in MMA.
UFC was off this past Saturday, so news has been late the last week or so. The UFC returns with a strong card in Kansas City headlined by Ian Machado Garry taking on Carlos Prates.
Stakes will again be high in Kansas City, fighters like Matt Schnell, Jimmy Flick and Timmy Cuamba may also be fighting to maintain their roster spot. Schnell has walked away before, but he’s coming back to write a more appropriate ending to his MMA story against Flick.
Either way it goes, there will be a lot on the line for him and others on the card. Here is a look at the entire UFC Kansas City card.
- I. Machado Garry vs. Carlos Prates – Welterweight
- Anthony Smith vs. Mingyang Zhang – Light Heavyweight
- Giga Chikadze vs. David Onama – Featherweight
- Michel Pereira vs. Abus Magomedov – Middleweight
- Randy Brown vs. Nicolas Dalby – Welterweight
- Ikram Aliskerov vs. André Muniz – Middleweight
- Matt Schnell vs. Jimmy Flick – Flyweight
- Evan Elder vs. Gauge Young – Lightweight
- Christian Gutierrez vs. John Castañeda – Featherweight
- Da’Mon Blackshear vs. Alatengheili – Bantamweight
- Cameron Saaiman vs. Malcolm Wellmaker – Bantamweight
- Jaqueline Amorim vs. Polyana Viana – Strawweight
- Timmy Cuamba vs. Roberto Romero – Featherweight
- Chelsea Chandler vs. Joselyne Edwards – Bantamweight
