Yoel Romero won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Romero is a member of the Bellator roster. He’ll be making his promotional debut on Sept. 18 against former Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion Phil Davis. This will be Romero’s first bout since a failed bid at the UFC Middleweight Championship against Israel Adesanya back in March 2020. […]
Romero is a member of the Bellator roster. He’ll be making his promotional debut on Sept. 18 against former Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion Phil Davis. This will be Romero’s first bout since a failed bid at the UFC Middleweight Championship against Israel Adesanya back in March 2020.
“The Soldier of God” and the UFC ended up parting ways in late 2020. During an interview with Tom Taylor of Bleacher Report, Romero said he was never worried about finding a new promotion to call home.
“When you do something very, very well and you really dedicate yourself to it, you’ll be sought-after. To be honest, I don’t think I did anything wrong in the UFC. I knew I was going to find work. I knew my work and my talent would be in demand, and Bellator became home.
“I felt happy. It was almost as if God was saying ‘don’t worry, you’re in my arms.’”
Yoel Romero is 44 years but to him, that fact doesn’t hinder his ability to compete. He actually wants to fight longer than Bernard Hopkins did.
“I would like to surpass Bernard Hopkins.”
Hopkins is a renowned retired boxer who had his final pro bout at 52 years old. Hopkins has the distinction of becoming the oldest world champion in boxing history. In fact, he broke his own record.
Romero has yet to capture a world title in MMA. He hopes that changes with his Bellator run and his journey starts with Davis in the main event of Bellator 266.
Yoel Romero has revealed his plan to continue fighting for 10 more years. The 42-year-old middleweight contender aims to surpass boxing legend Bernard Hopkins who fought in fifties. Multi-weight boxing champion Hopkins was still winning world championship fights at 49-years-old and fighting top tier opposition until he retired aged 51. Whilst speaking with his friends […]
Yoel Romero has revealed his plan to continue fighting for 10 more years.
The 42-year-old middleweight contender aims to surpass boxing legend Bernard Hopkins who fought in fifties. Multi-weight boxing champion Hopkins was still winning world championship fights at 49-years-old and fighting top tier opposition until he retired aged 51.
Whilst speaking with his friends on the UFC 248 Countdown show Romero discussed his goals for the future and spoke about exactly how long he will continue fighting, he said.
“You
know what my goal is? Surpassing Bernard Hopkins – the boxer. I think he
trained until age 51. That’s my goal, surpassing him.
“I
don’t feel tired. At this age, I’m still in shape. I fight against kids 25 and
27 years old and I make them sweat.”
Romero
is still very much at the top of his game and has no need to consider retirement.
Despite suffering back-to-back defeats, the 185lb title challenger has shown no
drop in performance levels
His losses
against Paulo Costa and before that in his rematch against Robert Whittaker are
controversial to say the least. Many people believe Romero despite his record
is the uncrowned middleweight king.
This
weekend he’ll get the chance to make it official when he takes on 30-year-old
champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 248 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’ll be the Cuban
Olympian’s second title shot after previously falling short against former
champion Robert Whittaker when they first met at UFC 213.
He’ll face a very tough test fighting Adesanya who is not only much younger but boasts size and reach advantages in the UFC 248 main event fight.
Adesanya is flying high after winning consecutive title bouts. First, he beat Kelvin Gastleum over five rounds to claim the interim belt. Next, he unified the middleweight division by stopping compatriot Whittaker inside two rounds last time out.
How long do you think Yoel Romero will continue fighting for?
There are few occasions where you could get executives from the UFC, Bellator, Golden Boy, and Top Rank in the same room without a full-scale brawl breaking out. But today in Washington, DC, an unprecedented congregation of combat-sports power players joined forces to support a common cause — the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, which is being conducted by the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas.
According to a press release distributed today, the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study was launched in April 2011, and is “focused on developing methods to detect the earliest and most subtle signs of brain injury in those exposed to head trauma, as well as determining which individuals may be more likely to develop chronic neurological disorders.” You can read a little more about the Cleveland Clinic’s work here.
Senators and lifelong boxing-lovers Harry Reid (D-NV) and John McCain (R-AZ) were keynote speakers at today’s press-conference, which you can watch above in its entirety. The list of speakers also included UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Spike TV President Kevin Kay, Bellator lightweight star Michael Chandler, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, Top Rank President Todd duBoef, and boxing legend Bernard Hopkins. Collectively, the combat sports promotions in attendance pledged $600,000 to help the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study continue its research for another year. As the press-release explains:
There are few occasions where you could get executives from the UFC, Bellator, Golden Boy, and Top Rank in the same room without a full-scale brawl breaking out. But today in Washington, DC, an unprecedented congregation of combat-sports power players joined forces to support a common cause — the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, which is being conducted by the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas.
According to a press release distributed today, the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study was launched in April 2011, and is “focused on developing methods to detect the earliest and most subtle signs of brain injury in those exposed to head trauma, as well as determining which individuals may be more likely to develop chronic neurological disorders.” You can read a little more about the Cleveland Clinic’s work here.
Senators and lifelong boxing-lovers Harry Reid (D-NV) and John McCain (R-AZ) were keynote speakers at today’s press-conference, which you can watch above in its entirety. The list of speakers also included UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Spike TV President Kevin Kay, Bellator lightweight star Michael Chandler, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, Top Rank President Todd duBoef, and boxing legend Bernard Hopkins. Collectively, the combat sports promotions in attendance pledged $600,000 to help the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study continue its research for another year. As the press-release explains:
To date, the study has enrolled nearly 400 active and retired fighters with the goal of evaluating 625 by its completion. Participation is completely voluntary, and fighters in the study receive free, ongoing assessments of their brain health and brain function, including MRI scans. Individual tests will be repeated annually for at least four years…
Studies suggest a percentage of professional fighters have a higher risk of developing long-term conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), depression and other neurological and neuropsychiatric problems, often at a young age. Currently, there is no way to determine if a fighter has sustained cumulative brain damage from head trauma; the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is working toward identifying risk factors in these individuals.
Researchers measure changes in brain volume, nerve fiber injury and connectivity, and blood flow via MRI scans. Any changes seen on the participant’s MRI will be correlated with their performance on assessments of cognition, behavior, balance and speech. For fighters who demonstrate a relationship between MRI findings and clinical decline, researchers hope to determine whether there are other factors such as genetics, lifestyle characteristics or the amount or type of exposure to head trauma that make them more susceptible to injury.
Preliminary results from the study have already been published or presented at a number of national meetings. Among the promising findings, the study detected changes in the volume of specific brain regions. The connections between certain areas of the brain were detected by MRI scanning in some individuals within as little as a one-year period, suggesting that MRI measures may turn out to be a useful method of tracking brain changes over time in those exposed to head trauma.
Moreover, the study found that exposure to head trauma – using the Composite Index, a formula that includes number of fights, years of fighting and fights per year – correlates with brain volume and cognitive performance. Those with a higher score on the Composite Index are more likely to score lower on cognitive testing. Pending validation over time, this may be a screening tool to identify fighters at higher risk of brain injury.
“We have made great progress in the study so far, and we are continuing to work toward understanding why certain individuals sustain long-term brain injury from repeated head trauma and how we can detect changes early to protect those individuals,” said Charles Bernick, M.D., Associate Medical Director at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and principle investigator on the study. “With the support of the fighting community, our goal is to use this information to improve safety in these sports for generations to come.”
According to Lorenzo Fertitta:
“Nothing is more important to the UFC than the health and safety of our athletes. As the world’s premier MMA organization we have consistently lived up to that commitment to our fighters and we always will. UFC was the first – and remains the only – combat sports organization to provide our athletes with accident insurance coverage for training-related injuries. Today’s announcement is a no-brainer for us, as we continue our commitment to athlete safety. We are proud to join with these other prominent promoters – our colleague and competitors – to support the Cleveland Clinic’s brain health study.
We are encouraged by the early results of the study and we look forward to the final findings of the Lou Ruvo Center’s research, knowing that they will benefit our athletes, as well as athletes from many other sports. Finally, the support shown by Senators Reid and McCain, and many of their colleagues, cannot go unnoticed. They have been true leaders and we thank them on behalf of the UFC, our athletes and our fans.”
I will be the first to admit, I was stunned when I heard Dana White speaking about a potential fight between Anderson Silva and Roy Jones Jr. when he was a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast before UFC 157.
“I have to make him [Silva] and f–king…
I will be the first to admit, I was stunned when I heard Dana White speaking about a potential fight between Anderson Silva and Roy Jones Jr. when he was a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast before UFC 157.
“I have to make him [Silva] and f–king Jones happen, man,” he said.
Of course, this made me blink in disbelief. I kept on blinking as Rogan and White talked about the greatness of Silva, how lucky the MMA world would be if he could actually finish his new 10-fight contract and so on.
It’s not that I didn’t think White possessed the same basic DNA as most MMA and boxing fans; I just didn’t think he would be willing to take such a risk.
The idea of Silva wanting to fight Jones to “test himself” seems absurd to me; Jones is many years outside of his prime, and I cannot shake the feeling that should he win, many would try and sell it as an MMA great beating a pound-for-pound boxing legend in the boxing ring.
And that is far from the truth.
Jones was once the greatest fighter in the sport of boxing, but that was many years ago. Silva fighting Jones just seems like bad theater; it’s as if Silva is letting five-plus years of hard defeats and knockouts do the work beforehand.
If Silva really wanted to test himself, there are many other boxers out there who would be able to give him a true test without making it look like they are throwing an MMA fighter to the lions.
But this really isn’t about Silva “testing himself,” it’s about Silva wanting to fight an idol.
And here is the onion; it should not happen under any circumstances because MMA cannot honestly be served in victory or defeat.
Should Silva win a boxing match against Jones, it honestly proves nothing. Over the past eight years, Jones has lost via KO/TKO four times, and he’s taken plenty of hard shots to the head in his other three decision losses. His reflexes are not even a fraction of what they once were, and he is a 44-year-old fighter who has been in the ring 64 times; the math isn’t hard.
Now, should Silva lose (a very real possibility), one of the best MMA fighters of all time will have been defeated by a once-great fighter who is but a shell of his former self—a fact that will be given publicity at nearly every convenient turn for years to come.
And make no mistake about it, this is a very losable fight for Silva. His hands won’t be nearly as fast wearing the bigger gloves, and his hands are going to be all he’s got. Against a man who is still faster than most boxers, who has forgotten more about the sport of boxing than most MMA fighters will ever learn, Silva is probably (and rightfully) an underdog.
It’s ageism at its worst if Silva wins, and it’s a crushing defeat if he loses.
People are going to say that Silva can’t look bad in victory because Jones wants the fight just as bad but that won’t matter when all is said and done. This fight was Silva’s idea, and that is why a victory is going to be seen as a kind of cowardice; there are other fighters out there who haven’t suffered so many hard knockouts, and they would jump at a chance to fight Silva.
Believe it or not, a tougher opponent would make Silva look better even if he lost; it would be seen as an MMA fighter wanting to honestly test himself. That is a much better scenario than Silva trying to claim a meal that has already been chewed up by the fighters who came before him.
There has been a lot made of Silva’s boxing ability in MMA circles due to a video-tapped sparring session in Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym. If Silva really is as great as such a session would lead many to believe, then there is no real reason why he shouldn’t be fighting any of the three men below.
Bernard Hopkins
At age 48, no one could say that Silva didn’t have the advantage of youth on his side in a boxing match against Bernard Hopkins.
They could also say he has a significant size advantage as well, and they would be right. And truth be told, Silva would need every advantage he could get against Hopkins, who is one of the craftiest boxers fighting today.
In addition, unlike Jones, Hopkins has never been knocked out so should Silva defeat him, he would be able to hold his head very high indeed.
While Hopkins probably doesn’t have the power to score a knockout, he might be able to garner a TKO which would ensure that Silva came into the bout in the best shape ever, fully aware of the task ahead of him.
But in all probability, Hopkins would handle Silva with ease, making him look like a fish out of water, which is honestly what he would be in a legitimate boxing match. Hopkins would hold just about every advantage one can imagine, and I doubt Silva would even win a single round.
But if Silva really wants a test, Hopkins could give it to him without sending him into a medically mandated retirement, which allows him to go back to fighting in the UFC.
Should Silva somehow win, he looks great because he would have earned a victory over perhaps the greatest Methuselah boxing has ever known. If he loses, then he will have lost against a fighter who is still viable in his sport, and there is no shame in that.
JamesToney
Many MMA fans and pundits do not give James Toney his due, but the man was willing to walk all his talk into the Octagon, and while he came up short against Couture, in a boxing ring he could be far more than Silva could handle.
Silva wouldn’t be outsized, and Toney is 45, so once again, youth would go to “The Spider.”
But Toney would be looking for revenge, and odds are he would be swinging for the knockout; given his defensive abilities and punching power, Silva could spend some time throwing his hands before getting countered for the KO.
The main reason why Toney would be a reasonable choice is that even though he is old for the fight game (and well outside his prime), he hasn’t ever been knocked out like Jones has, so an improbable Silva victory wouldn’t be cheapened.
And should Silva win, argument could even be made that it was as close to an even fight as possible since Silva hasn’t ever really fought in a boxing match of note against anyone good. That is a good thing because anytime an athlete crosses over into another sport, there is going to have to be some spin involved.
But how would Silva do in a boxing ring with a motivated James Toney? Probably not that well.
The defensive style of Toney makes him very hard to hit flush and allows him to land brutally hard counters. A novice like Silva would likely get knocked out by the middle rounds, but at least it would look like the sport of MMA was about the business of fair play; Toney fought in the UFC, and the UFC sent one of their best into the boxing ring to fight Toney.
There is also the fact that in Toney, Silva could test himself against a man Jones bested many years ago. It might not seem so grand in 2014, but for Silva’s first true boxing bout, it’s not bad.
Chad Dawson
Even though he’s coming off some tough losses (both via TKO), Chad Dawson would be the toughest choice out of the bunch given his youth, skill, speed and power.
Thankfully, Dawson isn’t a KO machine and would be surrendering a significant size advantage against Silva, which could help “The Spider” hang in there for a good number of rounds.
A fight against a man like Dawson yields the biggest risk but the biggest rewards; once again, should Silva somehow win, he looks simply fantastic, no matter how much bigger he is. Should he lose, well Dawson is just one defeat removed from being the WBC light heavyweight champion and thus a loss is honestly expected.
But it would be, by far, the most legitimate challenge for Silva, and in Dawson he would be facing a man who defeated two men who bested Jones: Bernard Hopkins and Antonio Tarver.
If you’re going to go into hostile territory, you might as well go all the way.
If Silva—one of MMA’s greatest fighters ever—climbs into the boxing ring, it shouldn’t be about an MMA fighter looking for an easy victory. That panders to the very thing that so many in the MMA community see as the biggest fault of boxing today—too many good fighters take easy fights instead of risking defeat in order to face better competition.
If Silva really does step into the squared circle, he should do it while representing all that makes MMA great—the willingness to face anyone in honest competition.
Until he is ready to do that, perhaps he should try and find some contentment in being an idol in his own right. As one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, god knows there are plenty who would love to be in his shoes.
Recently, HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant retired from his position as color commentator for the network, leaving behind some very big shoes to fill. Many have negative opinions about Merchant, but he was one of the most erudite voices to call the fi…
Recently, HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant retired from his position as color commentator for the network, leaving behind some very big shoes to fill.
Many have negative opinions about Merchant, but he was one of the most erudite voices to call the fights for our generation.
He was bold, mainly because his knowledge of the sport was sound and he came from an era that understood that more often than not, it is the hard questions that need to be asked, not the popular ones.
Taking his place will be a host of other commentators, all of them special in their own way, which got me to thinking about the UFC and their team of two: Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.
In the past, the UFC has seen fit to add a third to the team, lending the voices of Frank Mir, Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Jens Pulver and others to the mix and the results were good.
Given how the company is growing, there will be more chances to introduce additional talent to the booth and it is in the spirit of wonder that we give you a list of five men we would love to see as color commentators.
When I was a young boy, my father sat me on the sofa next to him and together, we shared something magical. We watched as Muhammad Ali battered some game yet hopelessly outclassed opponent along the ropes, knocking out his mouth piece. I remember that …
When I was a young boy, my father sat me on the sofa next to him and together, we shared something magical.
We watched as Muhammad Ali battered some game yet hopelessly outclassed opponent along the ropes, knocking out his mouth piece. I remember that moment in particular: the sight of that white shape flying out of his head so fast that I had to ask my father for confirmation as to what had just happened.
It was my first exposure to the world of combative sport, and there was no doubt that for me, boxing was king.
Fast forward many years later. I sit down next to my father, pop in a UFC DVD and introduce him to the sport of MMA.
Now, he and I (and my step-mother, a shockingly astute fight fan and fight prognosticator) watch both sports with equal passion, ordering more UFC pay-per-view events than many others I know.
This story is not an uncommon one.
The president of the UFC, Dana White, came to the fight game as a fan of boxing, and a fan of boxing he remains to this day.
There are a number of MMA fans who cannot understand, or perhaps tolerate, any comparisons between boxing and MMA. They rightly feel they are two different sports, and MMA doesn’t need validation from the sport of boxing, via comparisons, to stand on its own.
This makes perfect sense. MMA fought its way onto the big stage, and in many ways it has succeeded in spite of the sport of boxing, which has given MMA some of its biggest and most vocal detractors.
But the comparisons aren’t going to end anytime soon, but for one reason: boxing is the history of combative sport, much more so than MMA and jiu-jitsu.
The sport of boxing has produced some of the most incredible, jaw-dropping, toe-to-toe fights that have ever been seen. It has also produced some of the greatest fistic talents the world has ever known.
Many new fight fans that are drawn to the combative sports due to the lure of the UFC have no use for boxing. For them boxing is stagnant and boring.
Then, of course, there are fans like myself and my father: coming from a different generation, where boxing was all that was both great and awful about the fight game. We find MMA just as new and exciting and incredible as anyone else, but we can’t help but compare these new times with the old times.
Because both put a smile on our faces.
Of course, there are technical reasons as well. MMA is about fighting, while boxing is about an aspect of fighting. Boxing is the potatoes in the potato salad of MMA, so to speak.
Some fans are always going to wonder how a fighter like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Lennox Lewis would do in the sport of MMA, augmenting their considerable boxing skills with jiu-jitsu, grappling and so on. It’s not like the sport of MMA doesn’t have some aspects of the striking game that need improving.
But if pressed for a simple, honest answer: it’s because of the wars.
How can you, as a boxing fan, not feel for Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar what you felt when watching Arturo Gatti vs. Micky Ward I, for example? Great wars are in a class by themselves, and for many, they share the same real estate on the top shelf, and that is exactly where they belong.
When you start trying to place one epic bout above another, you are splitting hairs plucked from the same head.
Boxing and MMA may indeed be different sports, but the epic fights they produce are all the same species of animal: fearless, noble, strong and fast, unyielding and so beautiful to watch when it runs.
Yoel Romero has revealed his plan to continue fighting for 10 more years. The 42-year-old middleweight contender aims to surpass boxing legend Bernard Hopkins who fought in fifties. Multi-weight boxing champion Hopkins was still winning world championship fights at 49-years-old and fighting top tier opposition until he retired aged 51. Whilst speaking with his friends […]
I will be the first to admit, I was stunned when I heard