Tim Elliott’s phone rang, and he got a familiar uncomfortable feeling.
Less than two weeks earlier, Elliott suffered a second-round submission loss to newcomer Brandon Royval. It was his third consecutive setback and marked the second time he’d suffered such a fate in the UFC. His first three-fight slide came six years early with a unanimous decision loss to Zach Makovsky, and when the phone rang following that contest, the call was to inform Elliott that he’d been released from the promotion.
Sitting on the couch, the flyweight veteran looked at his buzzing phone, saw it was his manager calling, and thought he was about to find out he’d been released from the UFC for the second time in his career, but that wasn’t the case.