UFC Releases Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Nov 28, 2008 at 2:48 pm ET49 Comments
The UFC has released light heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (5-3), according to reports.
Sokoudjou, who went just 1-2 in three fights in the UFC, joins Jorge Gurgel, Fabricio Werdum, Marcus Aurelio, and others on the list of under-performing fighters who have been cut by the promotion as it seeks to trim its burgeoning roster.
The 25-year-old Judo champion burst onto the MMA scene in 2007 with upset knockouts of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona, but fizzled in the UFC, sandwiching his lone win over Kuzuhiro Nakamura with losses to Lyoto Machida and Luiz Cane.
Tags: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
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this might be a mistake. Sure he hasn’t looked so great in the UFC, but he is only 24 years old. Hopefully he will be back sometime.
I wonder if he will go back over to Japan and fight…? He could always sign with Affliction or StrikeForce but he seemed to be his best in Japan
He is young and most likely return to the UFC in the near future..
not suprised really, he needs to go work on his cardio then come back.
i would of liked to see a fight between him and alexander tho.
They’ll probably due for Sokoudjou what they did for Jake O’Brien. They re-sign him at a later date when they need an opponent for some up and comer. They’ll obviously re-sign him for less money.
Wow, a guy with K1 quality striking but unfortunately is like a Turtle on his back. I think at his age he has time to become a well rounded MMA fighter and start diligently working on his overall game. Time and again these big studs fall short, can his body type support the cardio required to go 5 rounds. He may decide to go the K1 route , it’s easier at this point than learning Jits .
I wish the UFC would start cutting all those TUF fighters who lose 2-3 fights… Why the heck wasn’t Kendall Grove cut or Jardine or any of the other TUF fighters who lose a couple consecutive fights? Or what about Leben with his recent losses and steroid abuse?
The UFC are becoming morons when it comes to wasting true talent in favor or pushing their over developed, over hyped, semi decent MMA reality stars.
Wake the F**K up!!
Not bothered very overrated move on
Jardine get cut?? Um probabaly not hell he has beaten Chuck, and Forrest, Vera lost to Houston and Wanderlei ya let’s cut him… Soko lost to Cane who he should have beaten imo, Machida ya well its Machida but when you’re paying a 25 year 40 g per fight and he constantly gasses hmmm and you’re 1~2 in the UFC it makes business sense to cut the underperforming talent and honestly Soko doesn’t have the “drawing” power of a Leben… O and its cheaper to keep a lot of the TUF’ers who will put on a good show than keeping the guy who is costing you money and gassing after 8 mins of work
@Al, an even blacker ref, really Al wow… That’s ridiculous, also by all accounts Soko trains his ass off, I just believe that he is too big to be a LHW and the cut to 205 ends up bothering him more than he realizes
Sokoudjou was much better, faster and stronger in Pride where they didnt test for steroids. Coincidence?
Buddy,
Also funny how all the fighters getting busted for steroids are UFC veterans or developments. You don’t see too many former Pride fighters testing positive in the UFC.
Anyways, I am just mad at Werdum, Sokoudjou among others being let go when I feel they deserve to be here more than certain other over hyped fighters.
My 2 cents.
werdum and soko getting cut were 2 different circumstances…when werdum signed his new contract prior to fighting dos santos, it was contingent upon him winning against dos santos so he would be next in line for the title after the mir/nog brock/randy tourney was over.
Since he lost that fight to dos santos his contract obviously had to be renegotiated and obviously he was going to get a pay cut for losing his fight. He was willing to re-negotiate so the UFC let him go.
Soko, on the other hand, came in with a ton of hype but just hasnt performed up to his billing. And the other posters are right, i’d rather pay jardine 10k/10k than soko 40k/40k. It’s a smart business move. He’ll be missed by some but there’s no one fighter out there the UFC needs.
yes the ufc need to get more ceaser gracie fighters. best camp ever
Doesnt bother me at all. He is not even a top 15 LH, let alone a top 10. Not to say that he doesnt have potential, but the UFC LW Division is not a place to learn grappling.
I dont really get Markus J comparing vera and jardine to soko, bro do you watch ufc? these two are leaps better than soko. this isnt even worth arguing over, so ill stop here
It is weird to see such names losing contracts. However, given the names that remain you have to perform. Bottom line.
There are some others that certainly could be cut i.e. tuf. But, it is what it is. Look at the line up for the UFC. It’s the big leagues man. Everything else (HW line up excluded) are just the minors.
I really think you have to compare it to other sports and their evolution. A lot of you act like this process for the evolution of sports is new. Players or fighters playing in different leagues or clubs.
Americans are used to this canned form of…sports. How many football leagues are there? Baseball? Golf promotions (or whatever the hell they are), Tennis? When you look at professional sports in the states it’s pretty contained. But, players are traded frequently to other teams.
Look at soccer overseas. I can barely keep up with the leagues, internationaly, with in the individual counrty, their states, regional and anything else I may be missing.
My point is that many of you aren’t recognizing the international and broader scope of things. It’s something to get used to.
I’m sure their are plenty of politics that play into this as well. Of course the UFC wants the best fighters. That being said if you don’t play ball with them and play their game why the hell would they want the brain damage? Between the different leagues, teams, countries, states…get used to it. American fighters, fans promotions…welcome to the international sports stage. Thanks for catching up.
It is what it is
no cardio but he is 24yrs old. dana thought about that one for a while.
Danny boy, mate, I never said anything about Vera. But since you brought him up, can someone please tell me why Vera hasn’t been released for his last 3 horrific showings? I actually think Sokoudjou would make quick work of Vera personally.
All I am saying is that I don’t get the UFC’s criteria for cutting talent. They are cutting guys with far better skills than guys they are keeping on the roster. Werdum got rocked in his last fight. So what? Jardine was brutally knocked out recently. So was Liddell.
The UFC in entitled to let go whoever they choose for whatever reason and as a fan I am allowed to complain when they cut fighters I enjoy watching fight and admire.
That’s all.
Cheers.
Marcus J,
What does Dana base firing based on? When I see SokoJu, Jorge Gurgel, and Fabricio Werdum on a card, I consider that a good fight to watch. If the fight doesn’t air, months later I rent the dvd to see the match. You’re right about Jardine, Leben and Grove. The only reason they are still around is because of their performances in TUF, not in the Octogan.
I don’t necessarily disagree with sokodjou getting cut, but there have been other fighters that haven’t been cut that should have been. I do see where the UFC is coming from in keeping cheaper fighters that put on a good show and have some name recognition from TUF vs more expensive fighters that don’t.
Yet Soko is really that “experienced” really…. 5-3 8 total fights I mean hell Randy has lost more fights then he has been in….. I don’t believe that Jardine should be cut, Grove perhaps I think he could work his way back
I also believe that if Soko can get impressive line of wins together he could come back, perhaps Soko should fight HW his build is so large for LHW that cut must kill him…
Vera, well simply ZUFFA has a lot invested in him but if he keeps losing he will be cut as well, but he has done everything Dana and the Brothers Ferttita have asked him to do, dropped down to LHW, took on Jardine ect he just hasn’t been impressive as of late
marcus j, i half agree with you. there’s definetly fighters that get cut prematurely and others that stick around long after when they should get their walkin papers. my guess is that given the current stage the sport is in(and prolly always will be to some degree) they have to consider drawing power as well as how well the person performs. by your standards, they’d have to cut someone like paul taylor as well, and i think alot of people would hate to see that considering how exciting that guy is to watch despite a losing record. i’m a little confused by the werdum move, but sokadju (sp?) in my opinion needed to be let go, as well as gurgel, as well as lutter.
my biggest beef with the way things are is that great fighters can lose 1 fight to and have to completely start over practically. happened to florian when he lost to sherk, lauzon seemed to dissappear when he lost to kenny, almeda is nowhere to be seen. these are all really good fighters that for some reason lose a high profile fight and get shafted. meanwhile liddell gets ko’d worse than i’ve ever seen and he’s 1-3 of his last four and he’s getting rumored to fight randy for a contenders match?
With all the Guys the UFC are cutting ,the UFC needs to do a TUF { The Comeback 2 } Something like season 4.
2girls2cup,
That’s exactly it my friend. I may have come off sounding a little strong in my previous posts. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think a guy should be cut for a losing record… Hell, I am one of the biggest fans and supporters of Clay Guida because he is an amazing fighter, despite him losing a handful of fights in a row. He gave it his all and could very well have been declared the winner in a few of those.
My beef is that guys, who the UFC made the mistake of over paying initially because of their previous records and performances in other organizations, are getting canned for one or two losses, despite fighting top notch opponents and giving it their all.
It’s almost as though the UFC wants these outsiders to fail so they can continue to push their home grown talent regardless of who the better fighter is.
I am sad about losing Werdum, Sokoudjou, Cro-cop among others pre-maturely, not to mention as other posters have noted the lack of exposure of other fighters on the roster who deserve their shot.
As much of a fan of both Randy and Chuck I am, I don’t want to see their 4th fight. Please, they are both DONE in my eyes.
seems like dana is trying is to help affliction with all these big name fighers wether they earned them or not.
the best thing for fans and fighters is to have compition between promotions but i dont know how many more i can buy in a month. if its like the last ufc fine but having 80% of the card going to decision and stopping 20 mins early is b.s and i dont want to pay 40 to see fedor fight and have barrnet get 700 thousand.
id rather shoot myself. dana thinks he smart at buisness but keeping these fighters around and maybe not give them big fights or steady ones would be smarter then giving them to affliction or dream
is it simply that he lost twice in ufc.
he lost to quality opponents or being a turtle on his back, and you guys are right about the cardio.
i think he should train with randy or a BJJ guy because in certain positiins he’s scary the kind of power could be put to more types of use with some very good training – LIKE REVERSING FROM BOTTOM, AVOIDING SUBS. he’s also the kind of fighter that people see walk into the ring
all dana is doing is feeding other organizations good and well known fighters so i think hes shootin him self in the foot again like hes done with alovski.
i have no idea why hes cut Jorge Gurgel. fare play hes a ground fighter who never NEVER went to the ground and whos strikin skill wasnt great, but i love (and im sure most ppl did) nearly every fight he was in. the kids got heart
More food for thought…
I have heard some of you complain in the past about having to choose about which fights to order ppv. 40 to 60 $’s a month every month get’s expensive right? Sometimes twice a month?
The UFC wants to put on fights every month and most people want to watch fights as much as possible.
In order to do that they can’t have every single “great” fighter on contract. You wouldn’t be able to watch certain fighters four or five times a year because they’d be waiting in a long line of “great” fighters.
That’s why they have WEC, Pride, and the other minor organizations. The cut’s are no suprise. We will see some of these fighters back in the UFC.
actually a ladder would solve that:
lots of simple systems work in other sports – for instance the tennis system works because you dont arrive in the top 10 or whatever without good fights – when you lose you drop = loseagain you drop some more.
people want to pay to see the ranked athletes compete.
fighters like werdum, barnett, arlovski, tim sylvia, would beat brock but the ufc wants to protect their golden boy.
a ladder would stop the picking and choosing of the owners and allow a fair fight
they dont even post rankings within their own org ..
so they book whatever is hot,
who can speak english without a translator,
whoever fights wild fights which stir up blood and dust.
not as exciting as the gracie days ..
where he’d take some big dude down and trump his game without a fellow employee (AKA REFS) standing it up.
it’s awesome to wait and see if brock would power out or tap after gasping for 20 minutes. it’s cool to watch when bas,randy, joe commentate so if you don’t see what’s happening they can at least tell you what tp watch out fot
did i just read that right?
you think big dumb tim sylvia would be brock?
lol thats funny, very very funny…
tim is past his time when was the last time he actually put up a fight let alone won one…
who gives a crap he blew it the ufc lightheavyweight division is stacked
the last time he looke great was hi 2nd last fight against ufc champion named nogueira. tim beat the crap out of him for 2 rnds
yes ufc LHW’s are stacked – by far the best division anywhere – in fact the top ten would rock brock mostly….
randy hung with brock despite catartacts for gogs sake
my mistake, i c u said kendal grove and jardine, i thought u said vera and jardine, i cant argue that kendal grove should be cut, i think i agree with that, but vera i think has alot of potenetial,
with that said, vera is a good fighter, definitly worthy to be in the ufc, i have to respectfully disagree that he has had 3 horrible fights in a row. reese andy, ill give you that one, but at least he won. and i thought he was exciting during the jardine fight, and i really think he won that close decision, he wobbled jardine a few times.
I don’t think anyone will beat Brock.. I know this isn’t exactly a post about Brock but it’s kinda turned into one?
Brock is too big, strong, athletic for the HW division. Now I totally know he lost his first UFC fight to Mir, but Mir was awarded a golden chalice in the form of the ref stopping the fight for hits to the back of the head, giving Mir time to recover, putting the fight back on the feet so’s Brock was not in that dominant side control position and gave Mir more time to reset. In a rematch I think Mir gets crushed (BTW I think Mir is also a huge joke anymore, the man ADMITS to not training cardio. He admits it! he says something around the lines of “i don’t train cardio anymore so that I wont get burnt out on training for fights, I hate it.”)Nog is quite possibly the only guy in all of the UFC that can beat Lesnar because of his ground game, but he has to get lesnar in his guard, he’s not going to submit him from having lesnar in side control, and that is now lesnars favorite position since his Mir loss.
russian doe boi he fought his twin brother who is a lightheavyweight fighter!
Nog will beat brock via decision and brock wont lose ever again after that!
man hopefully sokoudjou will go to japan or strike force the middleweight division might be good for him or trying some kickboxing either way i hope to see more of him win or lose he’s still a good fighter
nev0o
no
tim sylvia fought big nog and did pound him for a couple of rounds.
yes lil nog rogerio exists LHW not lightweight. he lost to sokoudjou by KO
even though nog willl eventually get old and wear down he will beat brock.
and brock will lose everytime he faces gonzaga, werdum, fedor, tim sylvia, arlovski.
i’d like to watch him and carwin though. i’d go with carwin
Brock’s a big hype machine. Me and a buddy of mine where kickn it before the fight .And I seen something on another M.M.A site.Welooked at the pictures of the way ins,When brock fought Mir and when brock fought Randy There’s a big differnce in Brock.And then my Friend found a picture of Brock in the W.W.E Can some one Honestly say he was not on Steroids.He’s a White version of Kimbo.That alway’s use his Lnp to win fight’s.As far them letting Soko go big deal,He’s B level fighter in a A level orginization.When the U.F.C bought pride and took who they wanted from there roster.Have we seen any Pride veteran Do anything that’s really impressive at this point.Wandy demolished Jardine,Anderson does not count because he only had 2-3 fight’s in Pride.Ihonestly got all fired up for the Merger but,Really disappointed With the Results.
ufc, pride,now affliction,
or as dana thinks of it infection….
i think that there are great fighters and different nites give different outcomes
also rampage doesnt count then ?
, or big nog, then ?
*Confuctious this maybe too long for u so don’t read it thanks…..*
@Jasonah, I’m not going to debate Lesnar with you, I just don’t feel like it…. Anderson Silva had 5 fights in PRIDE, technically he came to the UFC from Cage Rage kinda from Rumble On The Rock but not really
When ZUFFA bought PRIDE man I was pumped thinking that the likes of CC,Gomi, Fedor,Wanderlei, Arona, Saku,Shogun,Aleks, Yvel, Zuluzinho, were all going to come over to the UFC and it was going to be a WAR, ehhh not so much because ZUFFA bought PRIDE and didn’t exactly aquire the contracts of the fighters when the sale went threw ZUFFA owned everything PRIDE except the fighters and their contracts which were essentially void…
Dan Henderson has done well in UFC imo perhaps not a winning record but look who he has faced, Rampage is 3~1, Big Nog is undefeated, Gono well he is just up and down as usual.. U may not have gotten what we all wanted with the purchase of PRIDE but when it comes down to it, it was a business decision to eliminate THE competitor…. Affliction wishes they we’re 5% of what PRIDE was, perhaps that’s why Dana doesn’t take them too seriously, and they put on a show every 6 months? Soo
I think that even Zuffa was pumped about the possibilities in fights after buying pride. Dana has acted as though, at least that at first, they thought they would be able to buy the fighters contracts, and it wasn’t until they were already in the process that they figured out that they had to still go out and work out individual contracts with the fighters. I think that the Pride fighters have been a mixed bag in their transition to the UFC. Some of them didn’t bother to train in a cage before their first fights, and that affected them, others’ careers may be waning anyways.
Seriously though how can you say brock resorts to lay and pray tactics?? he did that in 1 fight?!
first fight TKO round 1
second fight loss by submission
third fight unanimous decision
fourth fight TKO round 2 – HW champion
Do I think he’s a perfect working model of a HW fighter? Not exactly yet. But he is the Matt Hughes of the HW’s. He is going to work on his submission game and striking while he wears and defends that gold belt against everyone else. The HW division is FULL of 1 trick poneys. Nearly every single HW is so 1 dimentional that it’s not too hard to try and
There is a good portion of new UFC fans that really don’t know these fighters being cut, except that they lose in the UFC. TUF fighters on the other hand, new UFC fans got/get to see them every week and can pick and chose which ones they like. We get to see Dollaway vs Massenzio instead of Okami vs Lister, why? Because a lot of new UFC fans that will be paying out the PPE fee, don’t know who they are and don’t care. Almost all of the people posting on here, are well rounded MMA fans and to a point, know what they are talking about. Dana knew a Leben vs Bisping could headline a UFC event, then a Soko going to HW and fighting Werdum ever would. TUF gives people the chance to talk around the watercooler and when their guy is on a PPV, money in Dana’s pocket.
@Willy D, you bring up an excellent point. I was thinking about this yesterday. Your absolutely right, that most mma fans really don’t know any better. Not to be rude but…they are mostly in it for who’s hot right now. Given the fact that they are the majority, the UFC and other organizations have to appeal, to that majority…fo the money. Can’t argue that
muaythai4life said:
I don’t think anyone will beat Brock.. I know this isn’t exactly a post about Brock but it’s kinda turned into one?
Brock is too big, strong, athletic for the HW division. Now I totally know he lost his first UFC fight to Mir, but Mir was awarded a golden chalice in the form of the ref stopping the fight for hits to the back of the head, giving Mir time to recover, putting the fight back on the feet so’s Brock was not in that dominant side control position and gave Mir more time to reset. In a rematch I think Mir gets crushed (BTW I think Mir is also a huge joke anymore, the man ADMITS to not training cardio. He admits it! he says something around the lines of “i don’t train cardio anymore so that I wont get burnt out on training for fights, I hate it.”)Nog is quite possibly the only guy in all of the UFC that can beat Lesnar because of his ground game, but he has to get lesnar in his guard, he’s not going to submit him from having lesnar in side control, and that is now lesnars favorite position since his Mir loss.
muaythai4life said:
Seriously though how can you say brock resorts to lay and pray tactics?? he did that in 1 fight?!
first fight TKO round 1
second fight loss by submission
third fight unanimous decision
fourth fight TKO round 2 – HW champion
Do I think he’s a perfect working model of a HW fighter? Not exactly yet. But he is the Matt Hughes of the HW’s. He is going to work on his submission game and striking while he wears and defends that gold belt against everyone else. The HW division is FULL of 1 trick poneys. Nearly every single HW is so 1 dimentional that it’s not too hard to try and
Brock is a joke, watch for Shane Carwin, same hight, same weight, wrestling background, difference is he has been training for MMA, he trains with Nate the Great. I doubt they will try to promote that fight because he wouldknock brock out, and they pay brock alot of money, so they are going to hand pick guys for brock to fight for a while… kinda like Kimbo
brock hasn’t been fully tested but if a 45 yr old guy can have him be huffing and catching his breath after les than 1 rnd, and was able to reverse the takedowns when wrestling is his forte i’m not totally impressed with brock overall. nog will win against mir and lesnar.
carwin is better/scarier.
surf:
you are right that UFC caters to the masses, however
i don’t agree that they ‘have to’
1- danish and the partitas could all retire now if they wanted.
2- it’s morally wrong in the context of MMA to have refs encourage stand up for the fans (which they do) – it’s tossing a tourd towards what the gracies showed the world and in fact what helped out MMA on the map – the rock vs paper vs scissors of MMA.
3- it’s not fair that say ufc championship of THE WORLD yet they favor english speakers.
many examples if you look at the roster – but for instance if TUF where part of the idea is to foster potential talent they over-represent people from the english speaking world.
could you imagine this in the olympics .
if you argue this is a biz not the olympics i’d say well its what we make of it. and than they should drop that CHAMPION OF THE WORLD! pretense