Ex-UFC fighter turned comedian was told he’d get cut if he didn’t accept ultimatum as huge underdog

Eric Spicely didn’t hesitate to simply accept an ultimatum from former UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

Fans called for UFC fighters to be cut just this past weekend in Baku following a dull opening to the cardboard.

Winning contained in the Octagon isn’t at all times enough to maintain your spot on the roster, as Daniel Marcos recently came upon despite delivering what the promotion asked for.

For Spicely, he was directly told that his UFC profession was on borrowed time, before he was in a position to defy the MMA leader’s plans for him by pulling off an enormous win.

In case you were Dana White, who’s the primary fighter you’d cut from the UFC roster?

Eric Spicely was told he could fight Thiago Santos or get released after the UFC forgot to chop him

In 2016, Eric Spicely was eliminated within the semi-finals of season 23 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ before losing his Octagon debut to Sam Alvey.

The previous fighter turned slapstick comedian recently recalled how after this fight, he received a call from former UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

Spicely said that Silva offered him each good and bad news, with the bad being that the UFC had decided to chop him.

Nonetheless, the excellent news was that the promotion had been so busy with a stacked event schedule that they forgot to terminate his paperwork, giving him an ultimatum in the shape of a matchup with Thiago Santos in Brazil.

“‘So, you possibly can take this fight against the number 15 ranked guy in his home country or you can be cut.’ So, I didn’t even call my coach or my manager or anybody,” Spicely said on The Shawn Johnson Podcast. “I just said, ‘Okay, I suppose we’re going to Brazil, I’m in.’”

Despite being around a +450 underdog when facing Santos, who would later challenge Jon Jones for the sunshine heavyweight title, Spicely left Brazil with a submission win in the primary round.

He ended up making seven appearances contained in the Octagon across two different stints before competing in MMA for the ultimate time in 2023.

Spicely can have kept his place on the roster by beating Santos, but he did have some rebuilding to do.

Throughout the podcast, he added that his coach refused to work with him for the Santos fight and suggested that he should go to Bellator as a substitute to face lesser opposition.

“I’m going see my coach later that night, we’re actually at a fighting event, we’re within the back room and I’m like, ‘Hey bud, they told me excellent news and bad news’. I tell him and he doesn’t look comfortable and I’m like, ‘What’s up?’ He’s like, ‘I feel it’s best to get cut… I don’t wish to go to Brazil and watch you get knocked out on national TV, I don’t wish to be an element of this.’”