Yoel Romero will challenge Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title. Photo / Getty Images
Yoel Romero will challenge Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title. Photo / Getty Images
Kiwi UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya puts his title on the line this Sunday, facing Cuban Yoel Romero in the headline bout of UFC 248 in Las Vegas. Christopher Reive looks at Romero's credentials ahead of the fight.
Who is Yoel Romero?
Romero is a 42-year-old Cuban fighter, who has been competing in combat sports at a high level since the 1990s. His career started in freestyle wrestling, in which he won plenty of medals including silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. However, he transitioned into mixed martial arts and picked up the striking side of the game with ease. With a number of his relatives having been high level boxers, Romero wasn't a stranger to that side of the sport.
Don't let his age fool you. Even at 42, Romero is one of the most explosive and powerful fighters in the UFC's middleweight division. Romero has 13 wins from 17 professional mixed martial arts bouts, and since joining the UFC in 2013, he has only lost three times – all by decision.
He wants to remain active until he's 52 – surpassing the mark set by boxing legend Bernard Hopkins who didn't retire until he was 51.
Yoel Romero had a decorated wrestling career before transitions into mixed martial arts. Photo / Getty Images
The 'Oogie Boogie Man'
No, we're not talking about the character from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, although Romero fits a similar profile. "Mr. Oogie Boogie is the meanest guy around; if I were on his Boogie list, I'd get out of town." The line from one of the songs in the film can be applied to Romero, who is thought by many fans and pundits to be someone middleweights don't fight unless they have to. It's not that Romero is unbeatable – he has won just once in his past four fights – but it's because he doesn't leave opponents unscathed.
His only losses in the UFC have been three decisions, while of his nine wins with the promotion, seven have been by knockout. In recent years, the argument could be made that Romero has altered careers. Former champion Chris Weidman had only suffered one TKO loss in his career before being knocked out by Romero in 2016. Since then, Weidman has lost three of four fights, two by knockout and one by TKO. It's a similar story for former champions Luke Rockhold (KO loss) and Robert Whittaker (unanimous and split decision wins), who both fought Romero and were knocked out in their following bouts. Before losing his title to Adesanya, Whittaker had back to back bouts against Romero – both going to decision after five rounds of action.
If you had do describe a Romero fight in one word, that word would be erratic. In his own words: "Everybody knows me, everybody knows I am very unpredictable. He doesn't know where I'm coming from in the cage." Flying knees, spinning strikes, takedowns and grappling are all tools on his utility belt he puts to good use, and the power in his strikes is not to be taken lightly. He is a pressure fighter, and likes to move forward, initiate the exchanges and control the cage.
How did Romero get the title shot?
There was some head scratching when talks of this bout started to filter through the MMA world, given Romero had lost his last two fights and three of his last four. Brazilian Paulo Costa was the expected challenger to Adesanya's title, but needed surgery to repair and incurred bicep and was ruled out until around April. With Adesanya wanting to stay active, he sought a bout against Romero to help build on his legacy. His team worked with the UFC to swing it and given Romero's reputation as the destroyer of the division, it was an easy sell to fans, despite American Jared Cannonier arguably being more deserving of the shot.
Yoel Romero taunts Paulo Costa during their bout in 2019. Photo / Getty Images
This is Romero's fourth chance to claim the middleweight gold, something he is yet to achieve. His first fight against Whittaker was for the interim title, which he lost by unanimous decision, while his second was for the title but he became ineligible to win it because he missed weight for the second time in as many fights. He lost the second fight by split decision. Between those bouts, Romero fought Rockhold for the interim title while Whittaker was out injured. Romero won the fight via KOP, but missed weight as was ineligible to win the title.
Adesanya's toughest test?
Many believe because of Romero's wrestling background, he will pose the toughest test of Adesanya's career to date. Because Adesanya joined the UFC after an elite kickboxing career, many have reservations as to how well he would handle being taken to the canvas. So far, Adesanya has been more than up to the challenges posed to him on the mat by Marvin Vettori and Kelvin Gastelum, and his takedown defence has been superb inside the octagon.
