Max Rohskopf cut by UFC after debut ended in controversy

Max Rohskopf has been cut from the UFC after his promotional debut, a short-notice lightweight fight with Austin Hubbard, ended in controversy.

Rohskopf took on Hubbard at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Volkov on June 20. Between the second and third rounds of the fight, he asked his coaches to end the bout, and didn’t change his tune when his handlers attempted to encourage him to continue.

After a tense back-and-forth in his corner, his coaches finally conceded and ended the contest.

Post-fight, UFC President Dana White suggested that Rohskopf might not be cut out for a career in MMA.

“I’ve told you guys this many times before, I believed back in the day that I was a fighter and I wanted to do this and that, and one day I found out that I wasn’t,” White said of Rohskopf at the card’s post-fight press conference. “The realization was that I wasn’t. When you find out, you need to walk away. I’m not saying that’s the case with this kid, but if that kid felt like he needed to quit tonight, who the f**k is anybody to judge him on that?

“He had the balls to come here and fight and take a short-notice fight in the UFC. Period. He’s got to get up tomorrow morning and look at himself in the mirror and figure out who he is and what he wants to do. There is no shame in getting here and finding out you’re not it. There’s no shame in that at all.”

Evidently, White does not believe Rohskopf is currently worthy of a UFC contract. Speaking to MMA Fighting, the young fighter confirmed that he’s been released by the promotion.

“I’ve done this my whole life,” Rohskopf said, sharing his belief that self-sabotage caused the end of his fight with Hubbard. “I’ve self-boycotted myself. Even when I was wrestling in high school, I was the best in the state and ended up getting third because I self-boycotted myself. I was one of the best guys in the country in college, was never an All-American when it counted, because I was telling myself that, for whatever reason, I don’t deserve it.

“That’s exactly what I did in my fight with Austin. Sh*t got hard, and I looked at my coach and said, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore.’ Not because I didn’t want to be there, but because I didn’t think I deserved to be there.”

Do you think Dana White and the UFC should have given Max Rohskopf another chance?