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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
British Lightweight Paul Kelly has been cut from the UFC following his loss to Donald Cerrone on last week's UFC 126 card.
Gareth Davies of the UK Telegraph passed the news along via Twitter this weekend, citing the UFC's shark tank of a lightweight division leading to the cut, and adding that it had nothing to do with Kelly's seeming sucker punch at the glove tap against Cerrone.
According to Davies, the UFC is looking to cut their roster of 60 lightweights down to 28 after the WEC merger, and Kelly, with losses in two of his last three fights, is just the latest casualty.
Kelly has alternated wins and losses in the UFC's lightweight division since mid-2009 when he dropped down to the division. Wins over Roli Delgado, Matt Veach and T.J. O'Brien were sandwiched by losses to Dennis Siver, Jacob Volkmann and Cerrone.
Penick's Analysis: This cut isn't entirely unexpected, as any fighters sitting in the mid-to-low range of performance in their bouts are going to find themselves on the way out. Kelly, despite having a lot of success in the UFC, hasn't put any real run together, and even though he hasn't taken a huge slide at any point, this is still not completely surprising. He'll bounce back fine, and can get some headline bookings in the U.K., if not add to Strikeforce or Bellator's lightweight division here in the U.S., but he'll find a place elsewhere.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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