Two staples from the UFC’s heavyweight division are no longer on the roster.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos and perennial contender Alistair Overeem have retired from the promotion.
A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed the promotional departure of the two heavyweights following their removal from the UFC rankings on Wednesday, but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has not officially announced the actions.
UFC officials did not respond to MMA Junkie’s request for comment.
Dos Santos (21-9 MMA, 15-8 UFC) made his promotional debut at UFC 90 in October 2008. He immediately made a statement when he hit Fabricio Werdum in 80 seconds with strikes. The win was the start of a nine-fight winning streak by ‘Cigano’.
Included with that point were two title fights: a resounding performance and a title defense. In November 2011, at UFC on FOX 1, Dos Santos Cain Velasquez finished with punches in 64 seconds to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. He would follow up that feat with a second round TKO win over Frank Mir at UFC 146 in May 2012.
Dos Santos lost the belt to Velasquez by unanimous decision in a rematch in December 2012 at UFC 155. After a win over Mark Hunt in May 2013, Dos Santos got his trilogy opportunity, but was defeated by Velasquez via TKO at UFC 166 in October 2013.
For the next seven years, Dos Santos remained a heavyweight contender. From 2018-2019, Dos Santos even achieved a winning streak of three fights with victories over Blagoi Ivanov, Tai Tuivasa and Derrick Lewis.
Dos Santos followed up the streak with a losing slip of four fights. Prior to his departure from the UFC, Dos Santos ended up strikes in four consecutive fights – losses against Francis Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes, Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Ciryl Gane.
Overeem (47-19 MMA, 13-8 UFC) entered the UFC and was already an established MMA star who has competed in numerous notable promotions including Strikeforce, PRIDE and DREAM.
In December 2011, Overeem made his promotional debut at UFC 141, ending Brock Lesnar with a body kick and punches. In his next four fights, Overeem went 1-3 with TKO losses to Antonio Silva, Travis Browne and Ben Rothwell.
However, Overeem turned his bad luck around and rattled off a winning streak of four fights with victories over Stefan Struve, Roy Nelson, Junior Dos Santos and Andrei Arlovski.
Over the course of his next 11 bouts leading up to UFC’s departure, Overeem is said to have his ups and downs. Prior to his departure, Overeem won back-to-back fights against Walt Harris and Augusto Sakai before being killed off with punches by Alexander Volkov at UFC Fight Night 184 on Feb. 6.