MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco just tweeted this as a follow-up to the story about Wanderlei Silva retracting his fight fixing allegations against the UFC:

Wanderlei Silva has been released from his UFC contract. Story coming to https://t.co/81ChzC22BM. — Steven Marrocco (@MMAjunkieSteven) January 14, 2016

It was not exactly a secret that after being suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission for life after fleeing a drug test (he claimed he was taking a banned diuretic to heal a wrist injury), Silva wanted to leave the UFC and fight overseas, though the lifetime suspension has since been overturned and he will get a new hearing next month. The UFC would never let him out of his contract, though, so they were at an impasse, and it got worse when he accused the promotion of fixing fights.

It appears that as part of the lawsuit going away and Silva retracting his comments, the UFC decided it was for the best to finally cut ties. One would think that with Silva being a legend in Pride FC, that he’ll be showing up in Rizin FF.