Junior Dos Santos is an institution in MMA. The former UFC Heavyweight Champion was once the most exciting name in the sport. However, father time has taken its toll on JDS. Despite beating current top contender Derrick Lewis in 2019, JDS has been on a rough patch in his career.

He lost four fights straight and saw himself released by the UFC, along with legend Alistair Overeem. While it makes financial sense to cut these legends when their contracts become too big for their in-cage production, the manner of doing it should still be polite. The UFC was anything but polite while releasing JDS according to the former champion himself in an interview with MMAFighting.com.

“I reacted with surprise, [and] I was a little bit impressed by the coldness of how they treated the case. I know it’s a business, [but] they just don’t care. The history we did in there and everything else, the dedication and how everything have always played out, was totally disregarded.”

JDS went into more detail and said, “The UFC didn’t even talk to me. For example, [UFC President] Dana White, I haven’t talked to him in years. Not to ask anything or know anything. They didn’t even talk to me. [UFC] texted Dan [Lambert] of American Top Team, and it got to me that their decision was to release me from my contract.”

Junior Dos Santos: Is he justified in being upset at Dana White?

While many may want to split this into multiple perspectives, there is just no justifiable reason for Dana White to treat a former champion the way he has. This is even more baffling considering how he has treated some other former champions on their way out of the sport.

White went out of his way to protect fighters like Chuck Liddel at the end of their prime. However, it doesn’t look like White invested much into ensuring ‘Cigano’ was content with his position in the UFC.

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JDS will be hitting free agency for the first time in well over a decade. This has people excited to see where his next step takes him. However, it is still sad to hear how coldly the UFC ended a decade+ relationship with him.