Three fighters have come off the UFC’s official roster, but one of them walked away on her own terms nearly two weeks ago.
UFC Roster Watch, which tracks additions and removals from the promotion’s active list, flagged the departures of Cody Gibson, Bekzat Almakhan and Hailey Cowan on Thursday. The timing lines up with the season 10 premiere of Dana White’s Contender Series, where four new fighters earned contracts on Tuesday. Roster spots get cleared this time of year to make room.
Cowan is the outlier. She announced her retirement on Instagram within hours of her August 1 loss to Nina Milošević at UFC Belgrade, so her removal is administrative rather than a cut.
Milošević stopped her with body shots at 3:41 of the first round and collected a $100,000 performance bonus for it. Cowan finished 0-4 in the Octagon and 7-6 as a pro.
“This little gymnast from Waco, TX decided she would become an MMA fighter at 23 years old,” Cowan wrote. “I’m proud of what I was able to do. And I’m excited for whatever is next!”
She earned her contract on season six of the Contender Series in 2022 with a split-decision win over Claudia Leite, then lost all four of her UFC appearances.
Gibson And Almakhan Leave On Losing Runs
Gibson is the most experienced of the three. He fought four times for the promotion between 2014 and 2015, returned in 2023 after reaching the final of The Ultimate Fighter 31, and went 3-8 overall under the UFC banner. His last three losses all came by finish, most recently a TKO defeat to Aoriqileng in October 2025.
Almakhan’s exit is the one drawing pushback. The Kazakh bantamweight went 1-3, and the schedule explains a lot of it. He knocked out Brad Katona in his debut, then drew Aleksandre Topuria and Jean Matsumoto, the kind of matchmaking that gives a prospect no runway.
Fans have spent Thursday arguing the promotion moved him too fast rather than that he underperformed.
None of the three removals is necessarily permanent. Fighters come off the roster and return, though Gibson and Almakhan will need results elsewhere first.
