Tom Egan released by UFC

rovert

http://www.fightersonlymagazine.co.uk/news/viewarticle.php?id=2050&offset=0

Tom Egan (3-1) has been released from his contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Fighters Only learned this afternoon.

The Irish welterweight made his debut against fellow organisation debutant Jon Hathaway (10-0) at UFC 93 in Dublin, but lost by TKO.

Egan was informed of his release in an email last night, according to his coach John Kavanagh of SBG Dublin.

“To be honest, I thought got in there early anyway. He’s only 20 years old and he only had three professional fights before fighting in the UFC,” said Kavanagh.

“We’re not disappointed at all with the news. It means he can get active on the UK and Ireland circuit and get more experience.

“We will get some more fights under his belt and the next time he is called up he will be ready.”

Egan is currently in the USA, where he has been training with the likes of Sidyodtong coach Mark Dellagrotte.

He hit the MMA headlines this week when he called out British welterweight Dan Hardy via his Setanta blog.

Sad news indeed

Dancor

Bit soon. Maybe he could have got one more fight in an upcoming european ppv or even a fight night. Maybe it was just to appease the Irish crowd having him at 93. Bit sad really.

AND BY EMAIL!!!!!

muckwarrior

I thought he'd at least get a second chance.

Dragan

In all fairness, the UFC have been making a LOT of cuts to their roster lately.

dunkamania

And alot of them by e-mail, or even txt message. :mad:

rovert

Dragan wrote: »

In all fairness, the UFC have been making a LOT of cuts to their roster lately.

There will be a new round of them very soon.

Utopia Parkway

His UFC debut came a bit early for him in truth. Thought he might get another shot though.

Tim_Murphy

It's probably in his best interests to be honest, it'll give him a chance to get a few fights under his belt on small and medium sized shows. To go from having three fights on Irish shows to fighting in the UFC was an awful big ask in fairness. Any young fighter has a way better chance IMO of making it to the big time if they make there way up slowly rather than being thrown straight in at the deep end.

Dragan

Tim_Murphy wrote: »

It's probably in his best interests to be honest, it'll give him a chance to get a few fights under his belt on small and medium sized shows. To go from having three fights on Irish shows to fighting in the UFC was an awful big ask in fairness. Any young fighter has a way better chance IMO of making it to the big time if they make there way up slowly rather than being thrown straight in at the deep end.

Spot on. He got his shot and like anyone with half a brain he jumped at it, and fair play to him. It's a big ask alright.

I hope he gets the quality wins on the local and European shows that inspire the UFC to come calling again in the future.

Kent Brockman

Tim_Murphy wrote: »

It's probably in his best interests to be honest, it'll give him a chance to get a few fights under his belt on small and medium sized shows. To go from having three fights on Irish shows to fighting in the UFC was an awful big ask in fairness. Any young fighter has a way better chance IMO of making it to the big time if they make there way up slowly rather than being thrown straight in at the deep end.

+1.

I know a lot of people were surprised initially when Tom got the call to the Ufc, because of his relative lack of experience. (Lots of my work colleagues,who are casual Ufc fans, were wondering who he was, who he had fought/beaten,was he the best in Ireland,how he had gotten into the Ufc and who his possible match ups could be etc,etc) and the truth is that the Irish show probably came a bit early for him and it was a little bit of an unfair position to put him in (IMO)

But fair play to him for stepping up to the plate and doing his country proud, it was an oppertunity not to be missed.

Even if this seems a big disappointment at this time, I'm sure it will work to Toms advantage in the longer term and he will probably be a much more experienced fighter when the Ufc next comes calling.

As a big MMA fan I think it is great to have such an intrest in our own home grown fighters and I wish Tom all the best in this tough business.

muckwarrior

Dragan wrote: »

In all fairness, the UFC have been making a LOT of cuts to their roster lately.

Is there a list anywhere? Just curious to see who.

Roper

yeah we're not talking about a 35 year old guy getting dropped. He'll go away and come back better. Who, in his position would have turned it down?

Seifer

He hit the MMA headlines this week when he called out British welterweight Dan Hardy via his Setanta blog.

Just had a look at the blog there.
He's a bit delusional if he thinks he'll be anywhere near Hardy after just a few months in the USA.
For starters he needs to bulk up or drop a weightclass if he's going to stand a chance of competing.

Perfect fit

i personally think its a good thing, This gives tom ample opportunity to get more experience behind him and perhaps go back to the ufc bigger faster stronger, definitly not the end of the tom egan ufc saga:D

Fozzy

muckwarrior wrote: »

Is there a list anywhere? Just curious to see who.

Just off the top of my head, in the last six weeks or so there's been Rich Clementi, Luigi Fiorvanti, Matt Arroyo, Nate Mohr, Reese Andy, Derek Downey, Mike Patt, Christian Wellisch, Eddie Sanchez and Troy Mandaloniz

I think that the WEC welterweights entering the UFC could have hurt some guys chances, because there are some talented guys who moved over

ginoginelli

I hope tom stays in america for as long as possible, gets some really good training in, finds the right weight class for himself and gets a few fights on some smaller shows.

Hopefully then he can come back to the ufc and show us what he's capable of...

cowzerp

Well this is proably best for Tom but the UFC are arses, dont sign someone up to 4 fights unless your planning on honoring 4 fights, Head up tom and get back up on that horse!

Fozzy

cowzerp wrote: »

Well this is proably best for Tom but the UFC are arses, dont sign someone up to 4 fights unless your planning on honoring 4 fights

That's just good business practice on their behalf. If they had signed Tom to a one fight contract and he had been really impressive then a rival promotion could jump in and get him and he could lever for a better contract

It's also in all UFC contracts that you can't be released after a win, only after a loss. If he'd won he'd still be there

Pride Fighter

If he has 3 fights left on his contract he should be reimbursed for loss of earnings as a result of cancellation. Thats a disgrace on the UFC's part.

ginoginelli

Pride Fighter wrote: »

If he has 3 fights left on his contract he should be reimbursed for loss of earnings as a result of cancellation.

And if pigs could fly..

ShawnRaven

I highly doubt we're gonna see the last of Tom to be fair. I'll also agree that he was pushed a little too early for that Dublin show, and with a few more fights under his belt, he'll get another shot. He's still very young and has a lot of time to develop and a lot of experience to gain.

Released by email kinda sucks though, surely it doesn't cost that much to make a phone call?

Perfect fit

most ufc contracts have clauses allowing the ufc to break contract

Pride Fighter

ShawnRaven wrote: »

I highly doubt we're gonna see the last of Tom to be fair. I'll also agree that he was pushed a little too early for that Dublin show, and with a few more fights under his belt, he'll get another shot. He's still very young and has a lot of time to develop and a lot of experience to gain.

Released by email kinda sucks though, surely it doesn't cost that much to make a phone call?

I think at his current level of development he has the beating of some of the UFC WW's. I am sad to see him go but he will be back, and in 4-5 years he will be an animal, he is already a strong fucker, I wrestled with him a while back, he tossed me around like a leaf, I can see why he is called the tank:).

SuperWoody101

I hate to say it but I think Tom only got his UFC pay day cos UFC came to Ireland! But as people have said, Tom is young and I HOPE we see him in the UFC again.

_oveless

It's good that Egan has experienced the ups and downs of high level mma so early, being picked up and dumped so quickly will probably sting, but it will also season him to the realities of the fight game.

da-bres

_oveless wrote: »

It's good that Egan has experienced the ups and downs of high level mma so early, being picked up and dumped so quickly will probably sting, but it will also season him to the realities of the fight game.

amen to that, he had a great experience and a taste of his dreams, He will be able to take a lot from this and be able to plan out for the future.

Gustradamus

I think this could possibly be the best move for Tom at this stage. It was evident that he was mismatched against a stronger, and more experienced Hathaway. That's a fault on the UFC's part, and not Toms. As some of you have rightfiully pointed out, anyone in Tom's shoes would have snapped up an opportunity like this if it came their way.

Tom is super talented, has a great attitude and is still so young. He'll bounce back without a doubt. But putting him in against an opponent like Hathaway in his home town, on front of 10,000 screaming fans is a big ask off a 20 year old with 3 pro fights.

The longer he stays in America the better. Training with guys like Florian and Riviera on a daily basis will stand him. Looking forward to seeing Tom in the UFC in the near future

shenanigans1982

SuperWoody101 wrote: »

I hate to say it but I think Tom only got his UFC pay day cos UFC came to Ireland! But as people have said, Tom is young and I HOPE we see him in the UFC again.

Good to see somebody looking at it with an unbiased point of view. Like everyone else I wanted him to do well but he was completely out of his depth and put on the card to give the hometown fans something to cheer about.

During his fight he showed nothing that would give the UFC incentive to continue his contract, most of it was spent being man handled by Hathaway and when he got to his feet he was gassed. They could have taken "Octagon nerves" into the equation but I think after another fight the result would have been the same. I think the suggestion that he would beat some of the WW's on the roster is laughable and if this had been a fighter from any other country everybody would have been agreeing with the decision.

But as everyone says its early days in his career, hopefully he gets another shot and things work out better.

robgordon

No one had ever heard of him going in, so maybe it was just too soon. Fighting around the circut for a while might be exactly what he needs. Hopefully he got a few quid out of it anyway.

CZ 453

Seen him at UFC 93 and he was totally out of his depth.He was too small and had no control in the octagon and got totally out wrestled by the English fighter.He was never good enough to step in to the octagon in the first place.Another few years training under his belt and he could do ok.MMA is becoming so all rounded now that you have to put the training in to all other martial arts....(wrestling needed in egans case)

rovert

Dave Meltzer had small note in this week's newsletter on him:

Tom Egan, who was talked about as being a potential Irish superstar if he could deliver, was cut because they felt he wasn’t ready to deliver.

Dave is probably as close as you are going to get when comes to hearing how UFC actually feels about fighters. It is pretty much the same of most of us feel about the situation.