Report: Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa to headline UFC on ESPN 3 in Miami
The UFC’s run of putting on entertaining main events for their main ESPN televised fight nights is reportedly set to continue. According to a report from Combate, the UFC is targeting a main event fight between middleweights Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa for their return to Miami on April 27.
Após 16 anos sem fazer evento em Miami, UFC volta à cidade no dia 27 de abril | combate | Sportv https://t.co/E7jxy4lYBx com @zeca_geraldo
— Raphael Marinho (@raphamarinho) January 22, 2019
The reported event will be third to take place on the network home channel of ESPN and is the third major city that ESPN will host a UFC event for, with the first coming in Phoenix in February, the second coming to Philadelphia in March, and the return to Miami in April. This will mark the UFC’s return to Miami for the first time in 16 years since UFC 42 took place at the American Airlines Arena where Matt Hughes defended his welterweight title against Frank Trigg in 2003.
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The fight between Romero and Costa had previously been scheduled two previous times with the first coming at UFC 230 last November and the most recent attempt was for the UFC on ESPN+ card that just aired in Brooklyn, New York. Both times the fight had to be cancelled due to each fighter having an injury issue which withdrew them from the fight.
Romero’s most recent fight came was a Fight Of The Night performance where he fell short against current middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 225 last June. The fight with Whittaker was a rematch from their first fight at UFC 213 and in between those fights, Romero picked up a win over Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 in an interim title fight but Romero was unable to win the title that night because he missed weight.
This will be the fifth UFC appearance for the undefeated Paulo Costa (12-0, 4-0) UFC who had his most recent win at UFC 226 with a second-round TKO of Uriah Hall. Since entering the UFC, Costa has had four straight TKO victories dating back to his debut in March of 2017.
UFC on ESPN 3 is reportedly set to take place on April 27, 2019 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida and will be televised on network ESPN.
