The UFC has just released a number of popular fighters from their roster, including a pair of elite grapplers in Ryan Hall and Nick Diaz. The news was originally alluded to by MMA journalist John Morgan, who revealed in a social media post that Hall and Diaz were among four notable names who were ‘removed from rankings eligibility’. Alongside them was Joe Lauzon and Al Iaquinta; and all four men have not fought for four years or more but were only made ineligible a little over a week ago. This appears to indicate that they have been quietly removed from the roster without any formal acknowledgement by the promotion, which is unfortunately not unheard of.
Hall and Diaz in particular have been inactive for very different reasons, but the end result is the same. Hall has been plagued by injuries over the last few years and even revealed that he has undergone as many as 19 different surgeries during that time. Obviously any surgery takes a fighter out of competition as they recover, but it also tends to shorten their career too. Given that Hall turned 40 earlier this year, it makes sense that he might want to step away from the sport. He had a successful UFC career during his time though, going 5-1 in the promotion with his sole loss coming against former featherweight world champion Ilia Topuria.
Diaz had a significantly longer career in the sport, making his debut in 2001 and signing with the UFC for the first time in 2003. He has competed for almost every major MMA promotion in the world over the course a decade but the final fights of his career were not as successful. He went 0-2 (1) from 2012 to 2015 and took a lengthy break from fighting, before returning to suffer a TKO loss to his old rival Robbie Lawler in 2021. Diaz has had his fair share of personal issues towards the end of his career too, and most recently reportedly spent time in a rehab facility.
