Brad Katona On UFC Release: “It Was Disappointing, It Was Ridiculous”
Brad Katona won the Ultimate Fighter 27 and despite a 2-2-0 record in the UFC, was released by the promotion.
It there is one way that Katona would describe being released by the UFC, it would be by saying it was both disappointing and ridiculous.
“I don’t know what words I can use. Pretty much everything you could think of. I’ve said this before, I remember the day. It was a Tuesday, I just finished a jiu-jitsu practice that didn’t go very well, it was just one of those bad sessions,” Brad Katona said on Just Scrap Radio (via Cole Shelton of BJPenn.com). “I go to the change rooms and I get a text from my manager and he found out earlier in the week. He wanted to talk to me when he got back. Unfortunately, they sent an e-mail out and he wanted the first contact to be him not me opening up my e-mail on an innocent Tuesday night. It was disappointing, it was ridiculous.”
Katona’s two victories in the UFC came over Jay Cucciniello and Matthew Lopez, while those losses came to Merab Dvalishvili and Hunter Azure.
The fighter is now open to offers from other companies and even the UFC, if they want him back.
“This was kind of our best approach. Especially with everything as it was, the news broke that I was released, I was injured, then also trying to navigate that ground,” Katona said. “Like what do I do next, like do I try to get back with the UFC? Sign with Bellator? Is it go with Brave, KSW, or fight on the regional scene. What is the best course of action and it was a bit of a shock… If Bellator wants to offer me something, I know I stack up very well in that bantamweight division. If the UFC wants me after this, I fully believe that the guys I fought, I can succeed there as well.”
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