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Built like an action figure, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight contender, Yoel Romero, has missed weight in two of his last three fights inside the Octagon, both of them title bouts. But despite his past scale woes, “Soldier of God” hasn’t thought about moving up to light heavyweight even though he teased it in the past.
In fact, Romero says the move wouldn’t be smart on his decision due to the fact that he feels will be undersized come fight night since he doesn’t have to cut that much weight to hit the 205-pound mark.
“When I’m training, I go down (in weight), and when I’m training, normally when I have a good training, (I weigh a) maximum 210 (pounds),” Romero said during a recent media scrum via MMA Junkie.
“It’s not possible. When I’m not training, boom – yeah, heavyweight. But when I’m training – 210, 208, 210, 208. It’s not possible for me. It’s not possible because I’m training good. I have respect for my job. When I’m training, I know what I need to do for good training,” he added.
“When you don’t sleep good, and when (you’re not eating healthy), something wrong happens: mistake. … When I have a good training, it’s not possible to go up. The (potential opponents) are so heavy.”
A match up between Romero and former light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier, has long been a fight fan’s dream scenario given their respective wrestling pedigrees. That said, once hydrated, “DC” would definitely have a big weight advantage over the Cuban-born grappler.
As Romero gears up to face current middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, this Sat. (March 7, 2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada, he had 13 pounds to shed as of yesterday to hit 185 pounds on the dot for the title fight.
Past scale fails for championship bouts aside, Romero is more than confident he will hit his target once weigh ins roll around and the fight will go on as planned.
“Everybody is different, but no excuses,” Romero said. “You need to do it because it’s the one mandatory thing you need to do as a professional – as long as you have enough time to do it.”
Indeed, I highly-doubt Dana White will be pleased if he has two title fights in back-to-back weekends botched due to fighters being unprofessional.
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