Alexandr Romanov was removed from the UFC roster 48 hours after scoring a victory over Rodrigo Nascimento.

The Moldovan heavyweight entered the competition ranked 13th in the world and dominated his 15th-ranked foe with a hard-fought unanimous decision victory at UFC Edmonton on Saturday night.

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Despite having his hand raised, Romanov left Canada without a deal after his contract expired and was subsequently removed from the UFC’s top 15.

Most fighters in his position would be worried about their future, but Romanov remains hopeful that a deal can be reached with the UFC.

“I hope (I will get a new contract),” he told the assembled media at the post-fight press conference.

“Because I feel like I’m just at the beginning of my biggest jump to the top 10.

“For me, it doesn’t matter who my next opponent is.”

Romanov was originally scheduled to face fan favorite Derrick Lewis in the co-main event of the evening.

But the UFC opted to split the two heavyweight fights on the card, meaning Romanov was booked to face Nascimento while Lewis was matched against Nascimento’s original opponent, Jhonata Diniz.

Lewis then withdrew from the contest 24 hours before fight night due to a “medical issue unrelated to his weight loss.”

As a result, Diniz was added to UFC 309 on November 16 in a clash with Marcin Tybura while Romanov hopes to return to fighting Lewis if he is re-signed to MMA’s premier promotion.

“(I still want to fight Derrick Lewis after we got rebooked) because for me it’s a very interesting match because it has that name,” he said immediately afterward.

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“He’s a big, strong guy and for me it’s going to be a really good test.”

Romanov is 18-3 overall in MMA and 7-3 in the UFC.

He won his first five fights in a row before losing to Tybura at UFC 278.

This was followed by a first round stoppage loss to Alexander Volkov before ending his losing streak by defeating Blagoy Ivanov over the distance.

Romanov was then submitted by Jailton Almeida but bounced back again in his last outing.

As of this writing, he remains a free agent.