Russian Instagram favorite Aleksandra Albu among fighters cut from UFC roster in spate of departures

Russian strawweight Aleksandra Albu has been dropped by the UFC in a round of departures from the promotion, according to reports. The Moldovan-born star last fought in the octagon in October of 2019.

The 30-year-old Albu is among nine fighters to leave the world’s premier MMA promotion, according to MMA Junkie, which combed the records to find the names culled despite there being no reports of their exits.

Albu was reportedly joined by Ali Alqaisi, Cyril Asker, Alex Chambers, Chris De La Rocha, Syuri Kondo, Bojan Mihajlovic, Suman Mokhtarian and Dmitry Sosnovskiy as those to be shown the door.

Strawweight star Albu’s Instagram account lists her as a UFC fighter from 2013-2019, the latter year coinciding with her last appearance in the octagon, when she lost a split decision against Thailand’s Konklak Suphisara at UFC Fight Night 162 in Singapore.

That was ‘Stitch’ Albu’s second defeat on the spin after she had begun life in the promotion with back-to-back victories, before enduring a layoff of almost two years.

Despite her UFC exit, Albu continues to train, sharing photos and clips with her following of more than 74,000 on Instagram.

The star – who is based in Moscow but boasts dual citizenship – has also made a name for stripping down in some eye-catching photoshoots.

Responding to Albu’s latest photo of her training with a group in Moscow, one fan asked “with the UFC everything’s over, where next? Bellator or somewhere else?"

The strawweight star had not replied to the post at the time of writing.

Elsewhere on the list of fighters reportedly dropped by the UFC was fellow Russian Dmitry Sosnovskiy, the heavyweight who is unbeaten in 11 professional MMA bouts and who won his only octagon contest to date against Mark Godbeer back in 2018.  

Russian giant Sosnovskiy was reportedly among those cut. © Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Sosnovskiy was reportedly arrested in Moscow in 2019 on suspicion of abduction and extortion but has denied any guilt in the case, which is said to be ongoing.

UFC boss Dana White spoke at the end of last year about the need for the promotion to trim roster numbers, saying as many as 60 fighters were set to be cut amid "tough decisions" being made.