At UFC 206 in December, streaking light heavyweight Misha Cirkunov stepped into the Octagon for a highly anticipated showdown with Nikita Krylov. Cirkunov rose to the occasion and continued his undefeated UFC streak as he submitted Krylov in the very first round, marking the biggest win of his UFC career.
The win made it four in a row for Cirkunov, who many believed to be on the brink of bursting into the official UFC’s rankings following a 1st round KO win over Daniel Jolly in his UFC debut, which he followed up with back to back submission wins over Alex Nicholson and Ion Cutelaba before his win over Krylov.
Now, following failed negotiations with the UFC, UFC President Dana White spoke to TSN to reveal that fight fans will not see Cirkunov in the UFC again:
“I met with Misha and his wife, and good people and everything else, but he ended up really flaking out on the deal,” White said. “So I’m not interested. I’m done. He knows I’m done. I made it very clear I’m done.”
“You’ll see him somewhere,” White said. “It just won’t be here.”
The news is certainly unfortunate for fight fans, who had grown to enjoy Cirkunov’s fights inside the Octagon.
One thing is likely certain, Bellator MMA will likely be quick to offer Cirkunov a deal in hopes of securing the streaking light heavyweight contender.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/11/2017.