Ultimate Fighting Championship head honcho Dana White has explained why Yoel Romero is regarded as the scariest fighter in the middleweight division.
The hulking Cuban mixed martial artist will challenge Israel Adesanya for the middleweight championship this Saturday as they headline the UFC 248 fight card in Las Vegas.
The pairing, though, has drew criticisms from some MMA fans as the challenger earns a shot at a UFC gold despite coming off a pair of losses.
Romero, a former Olympic silver medalist, last fought Paul Costa in the main card of UFC 241, where he suffered a unanimous decision loss.
Prior to this defeat, he was narrowly beaten by former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 245 headliner that was deemed a non-title bout because of Romero missing weight.
Despite the losing streak, the UFC president believes there is something ‘fascinating’ about Romero that makes him a worthy challenger for the ‘Last Stylebender.’
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Like A Piece Of Concrete
According to White, Romero’s previous opponents have claimed that fighting him was like going up against ‘a piece of concrete.’
“I think the fascinating thing about when you talk about Yoel Romero, and losing these fights, is that when you talk to the guys he fought, let them tell you the story of how the fight played out,” White told the media in the pre-UFC 248 press conference (via BJPenn.com)
“Every time they hit him, it hurt them. They said it’s literally like fighting a piece of concrete, and nobody that’s ever fought him wants to fight him again.”
In his entire UFC career, the Cuban fighter has not been knocked out, with all his three losses coming by way of unanimous/split decision.
“They don’t wanna fight him again. Those are the type of things that would make a guy who’s the champ say ‘I don’t need that s***’, right?”
“He’s [Adesanya] opting to fight Yoel Romero. If you don’t like that, you’re not a fan of fighting and you probably shouldn’t watch this fight anyway.”
Going For The Kill
Adesanya has been vocal about his desire to fight Romero and he has promised to become the first fighter to ‘stop him properly’ in a middleweight bout.
And while some 185-pounders feared for their dear lives when they shared the Octagon with Romero, the middleweight champion sees the Cuban hulk as an ordinary human.
“Pretty much, he’s a guy no one wants to fight, so that makes me want to fight him even more,” the Kiwi-Nigerian said.
“I want to know ‘Why is everyone so scared of this human?'”
“He is human. At the end of the day, he’s just another guy who bleeds if you cut him. He sweats. He gasses out. I don’t gas out.”
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