UFC releases John Lineker

The UFC has released long-time bantamweight contender John Lineker this week.

Lineker’s release is very shocking but the common theory for his release stems from him pulling out of his most recent scheduled fight. John was suppose to be in the co-main event of UFC on ESPN+ 12 (UFC Greenville) but dropped out of the fight due to a cut he sustained. The problem with this is he pulled out of the fight two days before the event and the doctors cleared him to fight. Lineker still decided not to go through with the fight.

Alex Davis, Lineker’s manager, foreshadowed this negative outcome last week on episode 2,949 of MMA Junkie Radio. Davis stated “Yeah I’m lost. I don’t know what his future is going to be. He got cut…I think he might have been able to stay in the fight but he decided not to. It was a co-main event. It was his decision…I do not know what the UFC’s attitude is going to be towards that.”

John Lineker has been with the UFC for 7 years and fought 16 times for the promotion. Lineker went 12-4 in those 16 fights while collecting 4 fight night bonuses. However, he has missed weight on 5 separate occasions in those 7 years. John’s last fight was back in April where he loss to Cory Sandhagen by split decision.

It is unclear at this time where John Lineker might end up but most likely this won’t be the end of the road for him.