Even though Yoel Romero wasn’t able to fight for the interim title, it appears that he will be able to do so for the actual middleweight title.
There was a lot of drama a few days ago when Romero weighed in at 188.3 pounds for his interim title fight against former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, who made weight for the bout.
This was the worst case scenario for the UFC as it forced the promotion to make it a non-title fight for Romero. This is not what the promotion had in mind when booking him at this event.
Romero was able to score a knockout win over Rockhold in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 221 pay-per-view event at Perth Arena in Perth, Australia.
As a result of his big win, Romero is expected to challenge Robert Whittaker for the middleweight title next.
There was some concern about the fact that the promotion may not want to take a chance on Romero making the weight for the upcoming title fight and give the opportunity to someone else.
However, one UFC executive shot down that theory after the UFC 221 pay-per-view event.
“For us, it’s never good when fighters miss weight, so I think it sort of takes a bit away from the main event,” UFC executive David Shaw said Saturday at UFC 221’s post-fight press conference (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “I’m glad that the main event fight continued, obviously. I thought the fight itself was pretty dynamic. The first round, they kind of sussed each other out, and Romero was pretty emphatic. I mean, that was a pretty decisive win.
“The weight situation, I don’t think that’s going to play into it (when it comes to a title shot),” Shaw continued. “I think we’ve got a few factors that are going to allow us for some time, and first and foremost, it’s that Rob can’t really fight for a few months, so there’s a bit of time to figure out what happens in the middleweight division.”
What are your thoughts on the promotion still giving Romero a title shot after missing weight. Is this the right or wrong call? Sound off on in the comment section below.
