In an attempt to manage the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the UFC have given nine more fighters their marching orders.

This should sadly come as no surprise to fans, as UFC president Dana White announced that 60 fighters would be released from the promotion at the end of last year.

In the interview, White revealed that UFC would be cutting ties with a lot of their roster, explaining, as per The Sun: “We’re going to have to make some serious cuts here at the end of the year.

“Probably we’re going to have 60 cuts coming up before the first of the year."

The latest fighters to be cut by the company are: Aleksandra Albu, Alex Chambers, Ali Alqaisi, Bojan Mihajlovic, Chris De La Rocha, Cyril Asker, Dmitry Sosnovskiy, Suman Mokhtarian and Syuri Kondo.

Just before the end of 2020, high-profile light-heavyweight Yoel Romero was a shock name to be released, but Dana White had his reasons.

He added: “Yoel has lost four of his last five fights. He’s 44 years old.

“Our roster is very inflated right now so we’re going to have to make some big cuts before the end of the year.

“You’re going to see a lot of names going here in the next several weeks."

There were some comments about an issue with fighters’ pay when it came to UFC, and this could be one of the reasons for parts of the roster to be released.

However, White was quick to dismiss the reports. In his interview, he continued: “We’ve been making these same moves every weekend for 20 years.

“We haven’t in the past few months. It has nothing to do with fighter pay or anything else. It just hasn’t been done in a few months during the pandemic."

UFC Fight Night, taking place this weekend, will be the promotion’s sixth card of the year. The main event will be a heavyweight clash between Derrick Lewis and Curtis Blaydes.