Not a lot of surprises in this round of apparent UFC releases. The active UFC roster has gotten three names shorter with the removal of James Head, Papy Abedi, and Ben Alloway.

James Head was one of the largest fighters in the welterweight division, standing 6' 2". And while he has a notable win over Brian Ebersole to his credit, his only other UFC victory comes against another name on today's docket, Papy Abedi. At 29 years of age it looks like Head will exit the UFC with a 9-4 record on the receiving end of a two fight losing streak. Both losses come by way of first round stoppage with a TKO loss to Mike Pyle and a submission loss to Jason High. Head is young enough to turn his career around in the next couple of years and make it back to the UFC, but as a fighter who still has a very limited amount of experience I expect he'll have to put together a healthy winning streak before getting the call again.

For Papy Abedi, his probable exit from the UFC marks the bust of one of the more notable prospects to enter the Octagon. Considered one of the top middleweight prospects in 2011, Abedi entered the UFC unbeaten with all 8 of his career victories by knockout or submission. Unfortunately, and despite his obviously high level Judo game, he was unable to find comparable success in the UFC. He lost his first two fights at welterweight via submission, to Thiago Alves and James Head, and after winning a lackluster split decision over Besam Yousef attempted to recapture his early career form with a move to Middleweight. He dominated TUF 17 fighter, Dylan Andrews, for the better part of two rounds before being knocked out brutally in the third. At 35 I don't expect there's much prospect of seeing him back in the UFC, but he could be a late replacement on a future Sweden card.

Finally Benny Alloway appears to have exited the UFC on back to back losses to Ryan LaFlare and Zak Cummings. His win over Manuel Rodrigues was decent (although Rodrigues is no longer with the promotion either) but LaFlare earned a fairly dominant, grappling heavy decision, and Cumming blasted him with a first round submission. The UFC makes a yearly habit of putting on events in Australia, however, so I wouldn't be shocked to see him on a future card with a couple wins.

That's all the roster moves for now; stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more fight updates, card announcements, and all your other combat sports news.

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