The UFC has seen enough of Don’Tale Mayes. The veteran heavyweight who was ranked as recently as March was removed from the promotion’s roster, per FullContactMTWF.
Mayes just lost a massively lopsided unanimous decision to Thomas Petersen on May 3 at UFC Des Moines. It was Mayes’ third straight loss and his fourth in his last five fights. Quite honestly, I’m not sure how Mayes ever ascended into the Top 15.
Perhaps the fact that he was ranked for months this year is an indictment on the rankings system, the UFC heavyweight division or a little of both. In any case, Mayes’ most recent loss dropped his professional record to a modest 11-9 with a 4-7 mark with one no contest in the UFC.
If there was any doubt about whether the UFC was justified in ending Mayes’ tenure with the promotion, fans need only to watch the complete dominance Petersen displayed over Lord Kong.
Petersen secured the victory with scores of 30-25, 30-26 and 30-26 from the three Octagon-side judges. When you also consider Petersen was coming off a first-round KO loss to Shamil Gaziev in his last fight, the defeat couldn’t have been more telling for Mayes.
The 33-year-old who has been a training partner of heavyweight champion Jon Jones had his best moments in the UFC when he earned his spot in 2019 on the Dana White Contender Series with a first-round KO win over Ricardo Prasel.
Mayes also scored back-to-back wins over Roque Martinez and Josh Parisian in 2020-21, and another victory over Andrei Arlovski in June 2023.
Mayes is still young for a heavyweight, so there is a chance he could land elsewhere. But for now, he’s had his last fight with the UFC. Meanwhile, Petersen is looking to use his win over Mayes as springboard into his next fight.
Petersen called out rising heavyweight Tallison Teixeira and Mick Parkin after his win.
Because he’s unranked, it is unlikely the UFC would match him with No. 13 Teixeira or No. 14 Parkin, as both of those men are seen as potential contenders down the road.
Petersen could hope for a meeting with No. 15 Martin Buday who recently broke into the rankings, or perhaps another heavyweight eager to get a number next to his name.
What’s Next in the UFC?
The UFC heads to the Centre Bell Arena in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for UFC 315 on Saturday, May 10. The pay-per-view features a pair of world championship fights.
UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad will defend his title against Jack Della Maddalena. UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko will defend her crown against Manon Fiorot. The winner could easily face current UFC strawweight champion, Weili Zhang later this year.
Here is a look at the complete card.
UFC 315 Full Card
- Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena – Welterweight
- Valentina Shevchenko vs. Manon Fiorot – Flyweight
- José Aldo vs. Aiemann Zahabi – Bantamweight
- Alexa Grasso vs. Natália Silva – Flyweight
- Benoît Saint-Denis vs. Kyle Prepolec – Lightweight
- Mike Malott vs. Charles Radtke – Welterweight
- Jessica Andrade vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius – Flyweight
- Modestas Bukauskas vs. Ion Cutelaba – Light Heavyweight
- Navajo Stirling vs. Ivan Erslan – Light Heavyweight
- Marc-André Barriault vs. Bruno Silva – Middleweight
- Daniel Santos vs. Jeong Yeong Lee – Featherweight
- Brad Katona vs. Bekzat Almakhan – Bantamweight
