After Yoel Romero and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) parted ways, many felt that “Soldier of God” would have countless offers from major promotions to compete for them. After all, Romero is one of the scariest and intimidating fighters in the game and has the highlight reel to back it up.
And while he has lost three of his last four, the hulking Cuban would be a great addition to any promotion. Unfortunately, two major promotions — Professional FIghters League (PFL) — and Bellator MMA have already passed on his services.
As far as Bellator is concerned, Scott Coker explained why he wasn’t interested in signing one of the best Middleweights in the game.
“We got a call from (his) agent, and originally we just passed,” Coker said told MMA Junkie “If you look at our roster and how many fighters we have on this roster and how many fights we’re going to do, there are only so many TV slots. We have kind of gotten away from signing the OGs we used to sign back in the day. That’s because guys like A.J. (McKee) are coming up. Ilima-Lei (Macfarlane) is developing into a main event fighter.”
I guess Anthony Johnson doesn’t qualify as an O.G. just yet.
Sure, Romero is 43 years of age, but he has proven he has a lot to offer the hurt business, but with Bellator focusing on its up-and-coming stars instead of former title contenders, “Soldier of God” simply doesn’t fit their current plans.
“We’ve basically built from the bottom up. We have a lot of great fighters that are on the roster that we’ve built over the last four to five years. We were kind of headed in a different direction. I was happy with the way the roster is right now not adding anybody.”
It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Coker to swoop in and sign former UFC fighters once their contracts were up, but since the company now wants to focus on its homegrown talents moving forward, it’s not a good sign for the looming UFC free agents.