Costas Philippou vanishes from UFC rankings. Film at 11.
****It was confirmed on July 7th that Philippou was retiring. This was after this article was written. Earlier in the day, he made his Twitter account private, with an avatar that read “THIS ACCOUNT IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE. PLEASE UNFOLLOW.” The UFC then confirmed via Twitter that he had told them of his retirement.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE BELOW
UFC middleweight Costas Philippou has departed from the UFC’s rankings. He was ranked at a respectable #12 in the stacked division, but now, with the updated lists, Philippou is gone. Dan Henderson has filled his spot and then Robert Whittaker, Roan Carneiro, and Derek Brunson all moved up one spot to round out the top 15.
Well the UFC usually doesn’t remove someone from the rankings unless some conditions are met.
1. A fighter is inactive for a long period of time.
2. A fighter retires or is going to retire. The UFC knows sometimes before the public and removes them. Twitter is usually the first to know.
3. If they fail a drug test. Twitter is usually the first to know
4. If the fighter is being released from the UFC. Twitter is usually the first to know
5. If their contract expires or they are in negotiations to renew. Twitter is usually the first to know.
Twitter is a beast.
Costas is not on the cut list, not retiring that we know of, and he is not inactive because he just fought in May. He did lose to Gegard Mousasi, but that wouldn’t knock someone down and out of the top 15. Or would it? He is 1-3 in his last 4 losing to Mousasi, Francis Carmont, and Luke Rockhold. He was 5-0 before that making it a respectable 6-3 and the quality of the opponents he lost to is not too shabby. His official UFC record is 6-4.
So does this mean anything? Maybe. He could be retiring, negotiating, or maybe they decided he needs one more win to remain in the mix.
The Greek fighter is a good fighter that just needs the right run to get in to the top 10 like his previous 5-0 run that was capped off with a win over Tim Boetsch.