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Reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, has already faced some pretty stiff competition at 185 pounds, including his title-unification bout against Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 last October.
But don’t count “The Reaper” as the toughest fight of his Octagon career.
Nor should we expect longtime middleweight contender, Yoel Romero, to earn that distinction when he tries to unseat Adesanya in the UFC 248 five-round pay-per-view (PPV) main event this March in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I’ve had some tough tests,” Adesanya told Submission Radio. “Right now, I still think Kelvin (Gastelum) has been my toughest fight so far physically. Mentally, Anderson Silva has been my toughest fight so far. But we’ll see. That’s yet to be said. I don’t think he’s (Romero) going to be. Like, the way the match is shaping up, I don’t really think he’s going to be. I think he’s going to be quite – not easy, but I’ll make it look easy.”
Romero is mostly mystique and muscle, if we’re judging by his most recent performances. While his knockout wins over Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman were impressive, “Soldier of God” was unable to top Whittaker in a pair of UFC title fights.
And the Cuban laid an egg against Paulo Costa in his most recent outing.
Adesanya remains unbeaten in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career at 18-0 and is unlikely to entertain any cross-division “super fights” (like this one) until he rids the 185-pound title picture of both Romero and Costa.