Yoel Romero vs. Luke Rockhold Full Fight Video Highlights

After missing weight on Friday night, Yoel Romero had a lot to prove in his UFC 221 main event versus Luke Rockhold last night (Sat., February 10, 2018) from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia. When it was in the books, “The Soldier of God” left absolutely no doubt as to whom the top UFC contender […]

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After missing weight on Friday night, Yoel Romero had a lot to prove in his UFC 221 main event versus Luke Rockhold last night (Sat., February 10, 2018) from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia.

When it was in the books, “The Soldier of God” left absolutely no doubt as to whom the top UFC contender at middleweight was.

The fight began with a bit of a tentative pace, as each fighter respected the other’s power. Rockhold threw a high volume of low kicks early, landing a few along with laser-like jab to most likely win him the first round. But Romero stormed back early in the second frame, rocking Rockhold with a barrage of wild power shots that seemed to daze the former champ momentarily.

In the third round, Romero seemingly came out of nowhere as he’s been known to do, flattening Rockhold with a huge shot over the top and absolutely crushing with a follow-up shot on the badly hurt veteran. Watch the highlights of the vicious win, which should earn him the next shot at champion Robert Whittaker:

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UFC 221 Post-Fight Press Conference

Although it faced the difficult problems of hometown champion Robert Whittaker withdrawing from the event and his replacement Yoel Romero missing weight before the main event, last night’s (Sat., February 10, 2018) UFC 221 still took place from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia. In the headliner, Yoel Romero knocked out former champion Luke Rockhold cold […]

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Although it faced the difficult problems of hometown champion Robert Whittaker withdrawing from the event and his replacement Yoel Romero missing weight before the main event, last night’s (Sat., February 10, 2018) UFC 221 still took place from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia.

In the headliner, Yoel Romero knocked out former champion Luke Rockhold cold in the third round of their interim title bout where Romero could not win the belt because he missed weight by almost three pounds.

The co-main event featured rising heavyweight Curtis Blaydes securing his biggest-ever win over local fan favorite Mark Hunt after some early trouble.

Watch the UFC 221 post-fight presser streaming live right after the main card here:

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UFC 221 Shows Rough State Of The UFC In 2018

Tonight (Sat., February 10, 2018), the UFC will trudge forward with its packed early 2018 schedule, this time offering UFC 221 live on pay-per-view from Perth, Australia. It’s an event that has been largely derided by the majority of MMA media as one of the lesser pay-per-view cards the promotion has put on for some time, […]

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Tonight (Sat., February 10, 2018), the UFC will trudge forward with its packed early 2018 schedule, this time offering UFC 221 live on pay-per-view from Perth, Australia.

It’s an event that has been largely derided by the majority of MMA media as one of the lesser pay-per-view cards the promotion has put on for some time, and indeed, the card has dubious potential to join the list of the worst pay-per-view cards of all-time, at least on paper.

That’s not to say that the Australian fighters on the card won’t show up and put on a night of exciting bouts for the home crowd; they most certainly could and assuming otherwise would be foolish and disrespectful to the athletes who have worked so hard to get where they are in the sport.

And it certainly didn’t help that the main event saw a late-notice change of the worst form when middleweight champion and nearby fan favorite Robert Whittaker was forced from his main event bout with Luke Rockhold thanks to a host of frightening injuries, a fact that was only dampened by Romero missing weight and being unable to contend for the interim title. But overall, the fact that the UFC was even in that position due to the overall shallowness of this card just shows the tough state the promotion is in during 2018.

Attempting to put on an event every single weekend with little to no name value and maybe even less promotion or time to promote it is only helping their FOX TV schedule, and it shows just how much the promotion has simply spread itself thin under new owners Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG).

As many in the media such as MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas have noted during the week leading up to UFC 222, they don’t have the roster depth to keep up this breakneck pace and maintain interest. And Deadspin’s Patrick Wyman succinctly dissected that their insistence on believing the product will sell just because it has the UFC brand attached to it is a foolhardy assumption.

Neither is sustainable for long-term success in the fight game, and it would seem Endeavor is rushing head-first into booking the biggest spectacles they can without much concern for the consequences soon to arise.

Making Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather in the octagon is a perfect example of this cash-grab-and-go strategy, as is making Tyron Woodley vs. Nate Diaz in a farcical welterweight title bout. Last-minutes changes, weight misses, and injuries ruining main events are unpredictable sets of circumstances that certainly don’t help, but the UFC’s seeming insistence on making both FOX-aired and pay-per-view cards as shallow and uninspiring as possible is why offerings like tonight’s cannot recover from losing a huge bout.

It was most likely happening for years if we’re honest – but the outright deluge of viewers and fans brought in by crossover stars Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey truly masked the clear evidence that this plan was not working. With their million buy-ability now gone, nearly every metric measuring the UFC’s success or lack thereof proves it is not – pay-per-view buys are way down, and big FOX ratings have hit an all-time low.

With a new TV deal on the horizon, that’s the worst news Endeavor could hear, so they appear ready to pull out the stops and book the most ‘superfights’ they can in order to drum up interest. They’re major players in Hollywood, so that’s no surprise. It might even work in the short term as it drums up some mainstream attention (‘might’ is the key word there, though).

If it actually gets a major network to pay the reported outlandish figure the UFC is asking is a different story altogether, however, and with figures falling to atrocious levels as the UFC is no longer a special event with watered-down events every weekend, it may turn out they can’t.

What’s clear is that something has to change, however, as tonight’s Rockhold vs. Romero main event is a great fight to be certain, but also one that had been repeatedly discussed for a FOX or Fight Night event, and now the UFC is forcing fans to pay $65 to watch it without any real meat on the undercard to boot.

That fact proves just how out of touch the UFC is with their fans right now, and they’re quickly losing the full backing of many fighters due to low pay and mounting issues over treatment. Something has to change, and it’s unclear when or if anything ever will.

If the new owners (who aren’t so new anymore) want the numbers to pick up in any or all facets of measurable success, they’re going to have to adapt, and serving up a pay-per-view like tonight’s is the exact opposite of doing just that.

Maybe they have something up their sleeve, and it will most likely involve the return of McGregor. A return to the previous glory days of the UFC could be rapidly moving out of reach for the world’s biggest MMA promoters, however, and their insistence to badly water down the schedule while assuming the fanbase would blindly follow the UFC brand are two major reasons why.

Do you envision a bounceback from the UFC this year, or are they digging themselves into an even bigger hole?

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Yoel Romero Misses Weight Again On Second Attempt

Yoel Romero has failed to make weight for his latest interim UFC middleweight title fight. After missing weight by an alarming 3.3 pounds on his first attempt for his interim middleweight title bout in the main event of this weekend’s (Sun., February 11, 2018) UFC 221 from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia, Romero engaged in a […]

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Yoel Romero has failed to make weight for his latest interim UFC middleweight title fight.

After missing weight by an alarming 3.3 pounds on his first attempt for his interim middleweight title bout in the main event of this weekend’s (Sun., February 11, 2018) UFC 221 from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia, Romero engaged in a heated staredown with Rockhold and had two hours to cut the weight and make 185 pounds.

He came in heavy on the second attempt as well, weighing in at 187.7 pounds.

Romero will be unable to fight for the interim title, while Rockhold remains eligible to win the belt in Perth tomorrow night.

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Video: Luke Rockhold & Yoel Romero Nearly Throw Down At UFC 221 Weigh-Ins

It wouldn’t be a UFC pay-per-view (at least as of late) without some last-minute drama, and unfortunately, this weekend’s (Sun., February 11, 2018) UFC 221 from Perth, Australia got just that. Interim middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero missed weight by a gaping 3.3 pounds on the first attempt for his main event versus former champion Luke […]

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It wouldn’t be a UFC pay-per-view (at least as of late) without some last-minute drama, and unfortunately, this weekend’s (Sun., February 11, 2018) UFC 221 from Perth, Australia got just that.

Interim middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero missed weight by a gaping 3.3 pounds on the first attempt for his main event versus former champion Luke Rockhold and is currently using his two hours to make the 185-pound title fight limit. if he cannot, Romero will not fight for the interim belt while Rockhold still will.

Rockhold was understandably angered at Romero’s lack of professionalism, and the two promptly engaged in an up-close and heated staredown where things got physical and the fight almost started early. Check out the weigh-in and scuffle from Submission Radio here:

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Archives: Whittaker Addresses Not Fighting GSP For MW Title (2018)

Tonight, Robert Whittaker will have an opportunity to recapture middleweight gold when he faces Israel Adesanya at UFC 271. This chance at redemption for Whittaker after getting starched in their initial bout three years ago is something “The Reaper” has no doubt fantasized about. Another fantasy bout for Whittaker would have been against one of…

Continue Reading Archives: Whittaker Addresses Not Fighting GSP For MW Title (2018) at MMA News.

Tonight, Robert Whittaker will have an opportunity to recapture middleweight gold when he faces Israel Adesanya at UFC 271. This chance at redemption for Whittaker after getting starched in their initial bout three years ago is something “The Reaper” has no doubt fantasized about.

Another fantasy bout for Whittaker would have been against one of his three favorite fighters of all time, Georges St-Pierre. In this article from four years ago, Whittaker discussed GSP not fighting him after St-Pierre captured the title from Michael Bisping in 2017.

The following article is presented to you in its original, unaltered form, courtesy of The MMA News Archives.

[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 9, 2018, 7:08 PM]

Headline: Whittaker Addresses Not Fighting Georges St-Pierre For Middleweight Title

UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has sounded off on Georges St-Pierre not fighting him.

St-Pierre returned to competition in November after four years away from the sport to win the middleweight title with a submission victory in the third round over Michael Bisping at UFC 217.

The win made St-Pierre just the fourth fighter in UFC history to win titles in two divisions. He now joins Randy Couture, B.J. Penn, and Conor McGregor.

Shortly after the fight, it was announced that GSP had vacated the title and the promotion awarded interim champion Whittaker the actual championship. Now, GSP is on the sidelines as he deals with colitis.

“I felt like the champion well before they came out and said it,” Whittaker said this week on The MMA Hour. “I think a lot of the middleweight division considered me the champion well before they came out and said it. The middleweight division was in a funny spot for a long time, with just the way things were panning out, who was fighting who, all these fighters that were coming out of left field. Like, there were matchups — they’re all funny, let’s just say they’re funny.

“And in my opinion, the rankings and the division, the way it should work is you have your champ, you have your No. 1, your No. 2, and the champ fights one, two fights one, three fights two, and you work your way up like that. And I just feel like, with Georges getting in there and proving to everyone the caliber of fighter he is, and that he can still get in there and do what he’s supposed to do, and the belt coming to me after I fought my way through some tough guys, the best in the division — I feel this is like a return to normalcy.”

No doubt the biggest fight that Whittaker could’ve taken right now would be against St-Pierre due to the fact that he’s one of the biggest draws in the history of the sport.

“I was split,” Whittaker said. “It was hard. I thought maybe if we fought in Montreal, we get a big pay-per-view, [St-Pierre] may want to fight me, because realistically, he doesn’t have too much to lose with that fight. But, yeah, there was always that part of me that thought, ‘No, there’s no way he’s going to take that fight with me.’ It’s a hard fight for anyone on any given day. And like he showed and he said, it’s not his division. He’s not built for the division the way that I am or other middleweights are, so it was hard for him to get up to the weight and to utilize that weight properly.

“I always knew there was a very big chance he was just going to take off and not fight,” Whittaker added. “I was just hoping he wouldn’t take another fight on the sidelines and just hold up the division once again.”

What are your thoughts on the promotion not booking this fight? Sound off in the comment section below. 

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