“The Cuban Missile Crisis” is no longer on the Ulitmate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster.
Today (Wed., March 5, 2025), Bert MMA revealed that UFC Middleweight Julian Marquez has been released from his respective contracts, and/or the promotion decided not to extend it.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Marquez (9-6) got signed to the UFC in style when he earned a contract in season one of Contender Series by brutally knocking out Phil Hawes with a head kick from hell.
“The Cuban Missile Crisis” went 3-1 to start his UFC career with three finishes over Darren Stewart, Maki Pitolo, and Sam Alvey. In that time frame, he had one of the biggest fumbles in UFC history when he blew a potential date with music superstar Miley Cirus.
Marquez lost his final four UFC fights by stoppage, all but one in the first round. His most recent loss came last weekend at UFC Vegas 103 against Cody Brundage.
Live by the sword die by the sword.
It’s a dangerous game.— Julian marquez (@JMarquezMMA) March 2, 2025
The biggest bummer for Marquez and what potentially added to his down was his gym situation. He, like many other fighters, got caught in the crossfire when James Krause got blacklisted from mixed martial arts (MMA).
Marquez trained out of Glory MMA in Kansas City, which Krause owned. After the gym shut down, he struggled to find a new home to train at, training at Factory X in Colorado and then The MMA Lab in Arizona.
The 34-year-old exits UFC with a 3-5 record and a 100% finish rate.
To check out UFC’s upcoming schedule of events, click here.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
