jcohl says:

On the matter of Dana White “cracking down” on problem children:
Keep in mind as the stakes and the crowds grow larger, the take gets fatter, the mainstream media gets more attentive, and the in-cage skill level goes thru the roof, maybe El Hefe feels that the UFC maturity and professionalsim curve needs to be as sharp as the UFC Octagonal learning curve.
Or maybe DW has so much more sh!t going on these days that he doesn’t have the time or inclination to deal with guys that can’t roll right.
Maybe a decade ago the sport and the org could deal with bad attitudes, but nowadays we should be past all of that.
DW has laid out some pretty simple rules in interviews over the years, such as make weight, fight your a$$ off, win if you can but always entertain, be cool to the fans at all times, think of the org, and don’t otherwise be a d!ck.

Now we don’t have anything cement on why guys like Duffee and Escudero were sent packing, but if you cross-reference them with the above list, you can sort of read between the lines.
Both Duffee and Escudero fought hard and won when they could, so they had that bit covered.
Escudero had weight issues and Duffee put some pretty stupid sh!t out in the Twitterverse when he was drinking and texting or something, so that bit they screwed the pooch on.
Rumor-mongering isn’t cool, but sometimes it can be useful when reading between the lines.
There is a lot of noise out there that both of these guys didn’t handle themselves the way they should either with fans or the front office, or both.
IMO its not “harsh” to send them down to the small show circuit, because if you’re going to fight in the big show your a$$ had best be ready for not just the best MMA fighters in the world, but the subsequent “bright lights” and “big money” that goes hand in hand with facing them…