Middleweight champ Robert Whittaker is sick of taking talk of a third fight with Yoel Romero seriously.
UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker has already managed to defeat Yoel Romero twice in the past year, but for some reason people continue to ask him about a third fight. Sure, the two we did witness were awesome. They were also close, with Romero staggering Whittaker repeatedly in their UFC 225 Fight of the Night battle.
That doesn’t mean Whittaker is all that interested in a third go between the two. He may not know what a ‘rubber match’ is, but he still knows a third fight typically involves fighters who have gone 1-1 against each other. Add in Robert winning despite a broken hand and Yoel missing weight, and he thinks the whole conversation is a bit silly.
”I find it funny because when you look at those fights, and when you look at the way things have gone, I’ve beaten Yoel Romero twice with a handicap,” he told Jim Edwards (via MMANYTT). “He didn’t even make the weight the second time. I mean, what do people want here? The only thing left for me to do is fight him when he’s a got a weapon!”
You’ve already beat him with the ultimate weapon: the power of Jesus Christ, who strengthens Yoel through all adversity. According to Romero, he won that last fight and considers himself the champion – maybe the 185.2 champ? That’s a second spiritual belt for Whittaker to claim if he was brave enough to try and threepeat against Romero.
So Whittaker has made it clear: he’s not interested in fighting Yoel again. But given the severity of the gypsy curse currently in effect upon the UFC and their middleweight division in general, we wouldn’t be surprised if a crazy turn of events puts them together again. An injury, a last minute opponent change, another interim. All are possibilities that could lead to Whittaker vs. Romero 3 before the end of 2019. We wouldn’t even be mad.