Yoel Romero

UFC: Yoel Romero out of August 22nd fight with Uriah Hall

by

The UFC is losing one of the more anticipated middleweight matchups it has planned over the next couple of months. First reported by BJPenn.com and confirmed by multiple sources, Yoel Romero (13-5) has been forced out of his fight with Uriah Hall (15-9).

The fight was expected to be the co-main event of the evening of UFC on ESPN 15 which takes place in eleven days. As of now, there is no reason as to why Romero has had to pull out of the contest.

What does the UFC do?

Obviously this is a tough blow to the main card of UFC on ESPN 15. This fight was arguably more anticipated than the main event between Frankie Edgar and Pedro Munhoz.

We will have to wait to see the reasoning behind Romero pulling out of the UFC contest. If it’s something that will force him to be out for a considerable amount of time, the promotion might look to find a replacement for Hall.

However, if the UFC is able to rebook this fight rather quickly, they might just push it back altogether. This was a massive fight for both of the men involved.

For Hall, this was truly a chance to break through after years of trying. A win over a guy like Yoel Romero would have put Hall only a win or two away from a UFC title shot. This is the closest he’s arguably been in his career.

For Romero, the Hall fight was his chance to get back on track. Romero again failed to capture UFC gold back in March when he lost to Israel Adesanya. The fight was the third straight that Romero had lost.

Again, this is a tough blow for the UFC on ESPN 15 card. It will be interesting to see what the promotion does. Who knows, maybe Khamzat Chimaev will give the UFC a call since he’s wanting to fight desperately this month.

UFC: Mike Perry Trains With Yoel Romero After Dropping Coaches

by

UFC star Mike Perry is rather unconventional. He’s no stranger to controversy outside the Octagon, he has a ‘knockout or be knocked out’ fighting style, and he’s become famous for having his girlfriend in his corner at his fights. He also currently doesn’t belong to any team, believing he can do better on his own than under a head coach.

That’s raised some questions, of course, about how Perry intends to handle fight camps going forward. Most fighters hold camp with their teammates and the coaches at their gym, but in the current era of the sport, fighters are more connected than ever and training partners can be flown in from elsewhere.

While some fighters bring in outsiders to help add to their camp, Perry’s camp will by its nature be entirely made of outsiders. That doesn’t mean Perry will be without high level training partners, though.

Perry shows off training with Yoel Romero

View this post on Instagram

Yolo Romero ! Terrorizing workouts.

A post shared by Platinum Mike Perry (@platinummikeperry) on

Yoel Romero has had a rough year so far, having picked up his third loss in a row back in March against Israel Adesanya, but was recently seen again on Instagram training with Perry.

As a high level fighter in the welterweight division, it’s not hard to imagine that Perry will be able to train with some pretty good fighters in the buildup to his next fight, which likely won’t be for a while after his unanimous decision victory against Mickey Gall.

The victory brought him to a 2-2 record in his last four fights, which isn’t good enough to get into the top fifteen in a tough division like this one but should be enough to start launching Perry in that direction again. After all, there’s only so many players that bring the same kind of action to the octagon.

Three fights to make after UFC Fight Island 1 and 2

by
UFC

The UFC held it’s second and third events from Fight Island this week and the fights didn’t disappoint. The promotion is already going to be in matchmaking mode after the two cards.

With that in-mind, let’s dive into four fights that the UFC should look to make following the two Fight Island fight nights from this past week.

Calvin Kattar vs Max Holloway

Calvin Kattar (22-4) came out this week on the UFC‘s Fight Island and put on a clean boxing display against Dan Ige. Kattar proved he was one of the best at 145.

With this win, Kattar appears to be just one win away from a title shot. With that, who should the UFC give him next?

Everyone who is ranked above is tentatively booked for their next fights. Only two are not and that is the champion and Max Holloway (21-6).

Holloway and Kattar would be the perfect fight for the UFC to make assuming that Holloway is staying at featherweight. The former champion just proved he’s still at the very top of the heap even in a loss to Alexander Volkanovski.

This would be Kattar’s true test to see if he’s title shot ready. If Kattar fights and beats Max Holloway, you cannot the deny the man of a title shot.

If Holloway bounces back and beats Kattar, you can start to try to angle for his third shot at the champion Volkanovski.

Deiveson Figueiredo vs Askar Askarov

Last night, we crowned a new flyweight champion in Deiveson Figueiredo (19-1) who stopped Joseph Benavidez for the second consecutive time.

When he did it back in February, he didn’t get the UFC title due to missing weight. However, there was no controversy last night as Figueiredo ran through Benavidez on his way to the title.

Another fighter who looked incredibly impressive last night was Askar Askarov (12-0-1). Admittedly, I didn’t pick Askarov to beat Alexandre Pantoja, but he proved me wrong.

With a win over Panoja, I think that the undefeated Russian should be next in line to fight Figueiredo for the UFC flyweight championship.

Russian MMA is on fire right now with two active champions in the UFC. Askarov could make a push to become the third, then at featherweight Zabit Magomedsharipov could be right behind.

I will say it’s going to take a herculean effort to wrestle the flyweight title away from Figueiredo. Figueiredo looks like he can be Brazil’s next great male UFC champion. He looks poised to potentially dominate the division for a while.

Jack Hermansson vs Romero/Hall winner

Jack Hermansson (21-5) made extremely quick work of Kelvin Gastelum last night at UFC Fight Island 2. The Joker submitted Gastelum in just 78 seconds of their fight.

Hermansson is now 5-1 in his last six fights in the UFC. There’s not really a clear path for his next fight, but I think I see a potential matchup coming after the month of August.

Yoel Romero (13-5) and Uriah Hall (15-9) are scheduled to fight next month. I think Hermansson could face the winner of that matchup.

In all likelihood, the winner of Whittaker/Till will get the next title shot, and I can’t see the UFC remaking Hermansson/Cannonier right now. Yoel Romero would be the next step up for Hermansson.

Hermansson is getting closer to a title shot. He’s going to need one or two wins coming against someone in or near the top five to make it happen. A win over Romero/Hall would get him halfway there.

The UFC’s week ahead

The UFC is going to be firing on all cylinders this week. Dana White said this week that he was hoping to get the UFC‘s schedule through October/November done by Friday. We should see some big news this week coming from the promotion.

 

UFC: Yoel Romero-Uriah Hall targeted for August

by

The UFC held their match making meeting on Tuesday, and the fight news is coming fast and furious. The UFC is targeting Yoel Romero (13-5) and Uriah Hall (15-9) for an event in August per ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.

Yoel Romero, the UFC’s ageless fighter

There is no doubting the greatness of Yoel Romero. Yes, you might look at Romero’s record over the past three years and wonder, but Romero is at the very top of the middleweight division. Romero is just 1-4 in his last five fights, but those four losses were all razor close decision losses to the top three middleweights in the UFC. If we are being honest, I believe he won the second Robert Whittaker fight which would have made him the middleweight champion. Romero is a freak of nature. At 43-years-old, Romero doesn’t seem to age at all. Romero is coming off of a loss to current champion, Israel Adesanya. This seems to be a good reset fight for Romero. On paper, Romero is going to be a massive favorite, and this should be the kind of fight that can kick start his journey back to a title shot.

Uriah Hall’s Golden Opportunity

This is a golden opportunity for Uriah Hall. There was nobody in the history of the “Ultimate Fighter” who had more hype than Hall did coming off of his season in 2013/ Everyone, including myself, thought he would become the next big superstar in the UFC. However, since leaving the TUF house, Hall is 8-7 in his UFC career. He had a highlight reel win against Gegard Mousasi, but outside of that, he’s lost every opportunity he’s had going up against the top guys in the division. Hall has won two straight fights, but if he’s able to pull off a victory against Yoel Romero, it would make a huge statement. Hall is currently ranked tenth, but a win over Romero might get him inside the top five. He could possibly be just two wins away from a shot at the title.