Yoel Romero says weight cut should be no problem ahead of UFC 248
Yoel Romero is confident he’ll make weight for his middleweight title fight at UFC 248 against Israel Adesanya.
Romero has missed weight in two title fights, once for the interim title against Luke Rockhold and the other for the undisputed belt against Robert Whittaker. With the weight misses, it left the Cuban ineligible to win the titles but he assures that will not be a problem here.
The Cuban is a big middleweight and has had trouble getting down in the past, but he says he is lighter than usual as most of the weight came off during training camp. He revealed on Monday, he needs to cut just 13 pounds to hit the 185-pound limit.
“198, muy bien,” Romero said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via MMA Mania). “Normally I am 202, depending. It is totally different now. Now I have time for training. That is the difference. I have a time for my training, in my camp. No excuses. It’s no problem for me when I have time for my training. I am not thinking about my weight for my fight. I am thinking about my training camp. Because you need to lose your weight in training camp.”
If Yoel Romero misses weight it would be disastrous for the UFC given the card was expected to feature Jared Cannonier vs. Robert Whittaker where one would serve as the backup. Yet, both had to pull out of the event due to an injury and a personal problem, respectively. As well, the other middleweight fight between Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Derek Brunson was moved to UFC Portland leaving no logical option as a backup fighter.
Romero is entering this fight on a two-fight losing skid after dropping decisions to Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker. This could very well be his final shot at UFC gold so expect a tough performance from the Cuban.
