Top UFC Fighter Fired, Early UFC 91 (Lesnar Vs. Couture) Buyrate
is reporting that former Pride veteran and Team Quest Light Heavyweight Thierry Sokoudjou has been released from his UFC contract following a loss to Luis Cane at UFC 89 in October. Sokoudjou, who burst onto the seen with two very quick and stunning KO victories over Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona at Pride 33 and 34 did not come into the UFC with the same kill or be killed attitude he appeared to have in the Pride bouts. He would lose via a submission to Lyoto Machida at UFC 79 last December and would go 1-2 overall during his stint with the MMA super power. Attempts to reach Sokoudjou for comment by MMAScoops.com staff went unreturned although a source within Team Quest did confirm that the story is true and that Sokoudjou now finds himself on the free agent market.
is also reporting that two preliminary estimates put UFC 91 in the 800,000-850,000 range. If those numbers hold up, it will be the second biggest UFC buyrate ever. It did not do the 1.2 million that White predicted, but still apparently did great business according to MMAScoops.com sources. A final number likely won't be out for several weeks.