Middleweight contender Yoel Romero has already come up short on two occasions to win Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) gold, falling both times to Robert Whittaker. But “Soldier of God” isn’t giving up hope just yet.
In fact, the hulking combatant is putting his money where his mouth is, as he has placed a wager against American Top Team (ATT) teammate Jorge Masvidal to see who will be the first of the two men to capture gold in 2019.
“The deal we have with Jorgie, he said to me, ‘Whoever wins the belt first this year, the other guy needs to pay for an all-expense-paid trip to Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic,’ where [they film] Exatlon,” Romero explained Romero in a recent interview with MMA Fighting. “Party, vacation. It’s a beautiful place. It’s where they film the show, but it’s [off-site] where we want to go.”
Both men were recent contestants on Exatlon, a Latin American reality show that puts contestants up against one another in a series of obstacle courses. Las Terrenas is known for its sandy beaches and nightlife, so the trip could prove to be costly for the loser.
“I know he stayed ready for the (Till) fight,” Romero said of Masvidal. “When he was coming out of Exatlon, he said to me, ‘Hey, we have a deal?’ I said, ‘Tell me.’ He said, ‘We’re going to see who wins the belt this year first.’ I said, ‘Okay, we have a deal.’ We shook on it, and we said okay, we have a deal. And now I know he wanted to kill this guy (Till). I know, because I know my guy.”
Romero, who is coming off a loss, will look to get back into the mix when he faces Ronaldo Souza at UFC on ESPN 3 event on April 27, 2019 in Sunrise, Florida. Jorge, meanwhile, is coming off a huge knockout victory over Darren Till (see it again here).
“Gamebred” is close to securing a fight against Ben Askren, which is tentatively slated to go down at UFC 239 on July 6, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. If it goes his way, the former street-fighter-turned pro MMA combatant could slide his way into his first-ever UFC title fight.
Which could very well give him the edge to score nice all-expenses paid vacation courtesy of “Solider of God.”