The UFC has removed two more fighters from the roster including one athlete who was originally scheduled to appear at UFC 280 on Saturday.
Yamato Nishikawa and Randy Costa are the latest fighters to be removed from the UFC roster, per UFC officials who confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Thursday.
Nishikawa was released just days after his fight with Magomed Mustafaev had been cancelled.
There’s no word why Nishikawa was released, although reports surfaced that the veteran SHOOTO competitor was still under contract to another promotion and that’s why he was removed from the card.
This means that Mustafaev will need to be re-enforced at a later time, after a convincing win over Rafael Fiziev.
As for Costa, the 28-year-old fighter from Massachusetts leaves the UFC after going 2-4 in six fights with the promotion. Costa most recently suffered through a three-fight losing streak capped off by a submission defeat at the hands of Guido Cannetti at UFC Vegas 61.
Costa joined the UFC roster with just four fights on his resume but he struggled against higher level competition with additional losses coming to Tony Kelley, Adrian Yanez and Brandon Davis.
It should also be noted two more fighters — Bobby Green and Ilir Latifi — were marked as removed from the active roster by the UFC Roster Watch Twitter account, which automatically reports when any athlete is pulled from the rankings pool provided by the promotion.
In this case, both Green and Latifi remain on the UFC roster and have not been released.
Green is currently on a six month suspension from the UFC for violating their anti-doping policies. He is not yet listed as an active fighter. The same can be said for Latifi, who is temporarily suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after he announced that he competed with a highly contagious staph infection in his most recent win over Aleksei Oleinik.
Latifi is still suspended until his punishment by the commission has been decided. That’s why he is not currently considered an active member of the UFC roster.
