UFC’s latest update to its fighter rankings has three of the prominent fighters removed from the list. MMAjunkie’s Mike Bohn reported on Wednesday that Misha Cirkunov and Rick Story are not under UFC contracts now. Free agent Lorenz Larkin is also not on the newly issued rankings, which may indicate that he won’t re-sign with the UFC either.

In case you didn’t know…

Lorenz Larkin (18-5-0) was ranked #6 in the UFC’s Welterweight division but became a free agent after his win over Neil Magny at UFC 202. He has five fights as a Welterweight with a record of 4-1.

Misha Cirkunov (13-2-0) is also a top-ten ranked fighter in the promotion and is coming off an impressive first-round submission win at UFC 206. Sportsnet’s Mike Johnston says that he is still looking to re-sign with the UFC.

Rick Story (19-9-0) has won twelve of his last eighteen fights and is also a top-ten Welterweight fighter in the UFC. On his last fight inside the Octagon, he lost to Donald Cerrone at UFC 202.

The heart of the matter

The fact that three of the distinguished fighters from the UFC roster are missing from the new rankings is startling. This could only mean that Misha Cirkunov, Rick Story and Lorenz Larkin despite their acclaimed status in the promotion won’t be re-signing with the UFC anytime soon.

MMAjunkie recently reported that Larkin was interested in fighting under Bellator MMA, but the promotion could not come to terms with his financial demands.

What’s next?

We don’t know the reason behind these fighters not being under the UFC contract for now, but it could either mean they had some issues with their contracts or they are looking to fight under some other promotion.

Sportskeeda’s take

Misha Cirkunov and Rick Story, both of their contracts with the UFC was over. Their removal from the rankings could mean that they were not talking to the promotion about their new contracts.

We might see them re-signing contracts with the UFC if everything goes well in their negotiations. In the case of Lorenz Larkin, he seemed to be unhappy with the UFC for not getting the attention he desired.

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