UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa says Yoel Romero is stalling to fight him.
Initially, the pair of knockout artists were set to collide at UFC 230 in November. This is the UFC’s Madison Square Garden card, which is expected to be stacked. Despite the UFC announcing the fight, Romero said he wouldn’t be able to make the date.
Apparently the Cuban suffered some facial injuries in his last fight against Robert Whittaker that need more time to heal. Costa thinks Romero is using this as an excuse to train more before they fight.
As he told Combate, Costa thinks Romero is stalling because he doesn’t want to risk his health against him:
“I think he’s stalling, he wants more time to train,” Costa said. “That’s the truth. I don’t doubt he could be hurt, but I think he’s taking advantage of it and asking for more time to train.
“When the UFC sent him the contract, he knew the fight would be in November, otherwise they wouldn’t send it. I signed it, he didn’t. He said his doctor told him he needed more time to heal, but he hurt himself when he fought Whittaker, how much time would he need?
“He knows it’s going to be a tough fight, everyone in the weight class knows how it is when you fight me. It’s going be a really aggressive fight, with devastating punches and kicks. They don’t want to risk their health, especially a 41-year-old man who’s probably thinking about retiring.
“If he hurt his face, he’ll be afraid of getting hit there. I think he wasn’t sparring that hard before, so now it’s going to be even less harder. Unfortunately, that fight won’t be good for him.”
Costa is also throwing out options for his next fight. He’s considering the possibility Romero isn’t ready to fight by early next year. Costa also realizes that Whittaker’s title defense against Kelvin Gastelum could be prolonged as well.
If all the pieces fall into place, he’d like to fight the winner of Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold. This is another pivotal middleweight bout that will happen at UFC 230:
“If Whittaker takes much longer and can’t fight Gastelum by the beginning of the year, I’m making myself available to fight the winner of Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman around the same time Whittaker and Gastelum fight for the title,” he said.
“If the UFC and the fans want it, I’m in. I’ll take any of the two, but especially Weidman, because he defeated Vitor Belfort, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida, so he hurt our Brazilian pride a little bit. I’m ready for any of them, I’m all about the strategy.”
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