Report: Yoel Romero vs. Jacaré Souza II confirmed for UFC Fight Night Florida

2019 will really provide a huge reshuffle of the upper tier in the Middleweight division. The UFC are reportedly landing a massive rematch between Yoel Romero and Ronaldo ‘Jacaré’ Souza on the UFC Fight Night Florida card.

The former three time title chaser, Romero was widely expected to meet another Brazilian in the main event slot, with Paulo Costa replaced by compatriot Souza late last night. The pair originally clashed back in 2015 at UFC 194, with Romero picking up a narrow decision victory after scoring an all important and ultimately tied turning spinning-back fist knockdown on the grappling ace.

Long regarded as one of the most imposing athletes in the promotion, freestyle wrestler Yoel ‘Solider Of God’ Romero brings more to the Octagon than just his incredible grappling ability. The Olympian has incredible power in both hands and hold two flying knee stoppage wins in his UFC career.

Losing both title clashes with current champion Robert Whittaker, the rematch in quite questionable circumstances it has to be noted. Yoel was successful in the Interim Middleweight title clash with former division front runner Luke Rockhold, but his vicious third round knockout was marred by a botched weight cut, subsequently leaving him title-less in Perth.

Questions have been asked regarding the Cuban’s conditioning in the past, case in point his contentious win over Tim Kennedy. Romero’s grappling and transitioning is high level of course, look back to his set ups against Chris Weidman and eventual trip and elbow finish of Lyoto Machida.

A 6th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, similarly to Yoel, Souza excels in one specific martial art but brings so much more to the Octagon.

Another heavy handed striker with a knack for a knockout, Jacaré has 22 stoppage wins in his storied career. A more traversed mixed-martial artist than Romero, Souza began his professional career all the way back in 2003 and has featured in promotions such as DREAM, Jungle Fight and Strikeforce where he held the Middleweight strap.

Yet to ‘earn’ his premier UFC title tilt even after a recent stoppage win over Chris Weidman, the alligator found himself on the wrong end of a rather dubious split decision to Kelvin Gastelum which may have resulted in his installment into the Interim Middleweight clash between Israel Adesanya and Gastelum at UFC 236. The 39 year old doesn’t differentiate between joint or choke submissions per say, with arm triangles, armbars and kimuras aplenty on his eye catching résumé.

Taking place on April 27th from the BB&T Centre, UFC Fight Night Florida features clashes like Glover Teixeira’s return versus streaking contender Ion Cutelaba, a Bantamweight meeting of perennial contender John Lineker and upstart Cody Sandhagen, while the highly controversial former Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy makes his second Octagon walk after a disqualification against Allen Crowder.

News: Paulo Costa injured, Yoel Romero calls for Anderson Silva instead

Once again, a reported middleweight clash between perennial contender Yoel Romero and rising challenger Paulo Costa has fallen out.

Both behemoths at 185lbs were scheduled to meet at the recent UFC 230 event in Madison Square Garden, with Cuban wrestler Romero opting to recover from multiple injuries sustained against Robert Whittaker, leaving the undefeated Belo Horizonte native without a dance partner in New York.

The promotion were believed to have eyed an eventual clash between the pair at their premier ESPN+ 1 event on the 19th of January in the new year, but Paulo Costa has picked up an injury, ruling him out of the expected headlining slot.

Romero sustained a nasty broken orbital bone in his rematch with current middleweight best Robert Whittaker in the second round of their back and forth clash. After yet another botched weight cut to 185lbs, the now 41 year-old former Olympian was widely expected to make the leap to a more comfortable home of 205lbs, with a clash alongside Alexander Gustafsson momentarily suggested for an Interim crown at UFC 230 failing to materialize.

Romero has seen weight issues prevent him from clinching a UFC title on multiple occasions, namely his UFC 221 Interim middleweight title knockout win over Luke Rockhold and his UFC 224 split decision loss to Whittaker in which many had the Pinar del Rio favourite narrowly edging out the Aussie. In both match ups, #1 ranked Yoel failed to make weight successfully.

Fast approaching the top five of 185lbs, Paulo Costa has so far displayed unparalleled striking power at middleweight maybe only matched by Romero himself in his first four walks to the Octagon. The Brazilian made hard work of the hot and cold Uriah Hall in his most recent fight, eventually finishing the flashy kickboxer in the second round, earning him the #8 rank in the murderers row that is 185lbs.

In a somewhat bizarre ply to earn a fourth tilt at championship honours, the explosive Romero has issued a challenge to the iconic former division king Anderson Silva who recently served a reduced suspension after a USADA test returned positive for hydrochlorothiazide and methyltestosterone, later discovered to be present in a contaminated substance consumed by the Curitiba counter striker. This subsequently allowed him to return to active competition in November 2018.

‘The Spider’ last competed at the controversial UFC 208 in Brooklyn, scoring a unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson.  Silva, who will turn 44 next April, has recently dropped losses to Daniel Cormier on short notice and a razor thin decision defeat to Michael Bisping, which ultimately earned the British striker his successful siege of the middleweight crown against Luke Rockhold.

UFC Fight Night 143 takes place at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York on January 19th, and currently features a welterweight match up between Belal Muhammed and Geoff Neal, and a Women’s flyweigth clash between prospects Paige VanZant and Rachael Ostovich-Berdon.

Report: UFC targeting Yoel Romero vs Alexander Gustafsson for UFC 230 main event

With tickets for UFC 230 going on sale today and the event still short of a main event, multiple sources have confirmed that the promotion is hoping to headline the event with a light heavyweight title scrap between perennial 205lb contender Alexander Gustafsson  (18-4-0) and former middleweight title challenger, Yoel Romero (13-3-0).

Report: Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman rematch headed to UFC 230 in New York

Former middleweight champion Chris Weidman (14-3) and his somewhat arch-rival, Luke Rockhold (16-4), are set to clash again at UFC 230 in November. UFC 230 takes place November 3rd at Madison Square Garden in New York, so it is very much in Weidman’s back-yard.

MMAMotion Week In Focus #2

Another week in the crazy world of MMA, we have had UFC Calgary with a crazy card, Conor Mcgregor has had his court hearing, Bellator adding multiple fighters to their roster and Dana Whites Tuesday Night Contender Series once again lives up to expectations. In this article, we will take a quick look at the main things that happened in mixed martial arts last week.

Breaking: Yoel Romero vs. Paulo Costa at UFC 230

Number one ranked middleweight, Yoel “Soldier of God” Romero (13-3) will fight on the card of UFC 230 in New York’s Madison Square Garden in November, against the undefeated, upcoming, eighth-ranked destroyer,  Paulo “The Eraser” Costa (12-0).

Live Results: UFC 225 – Whittaker vs Romero 2

The wait is finally over and arguably the most anticipated UFC card of the year is less than an hour away from kicking off in Chicago, Illinois.

The final few days of preparation have not been without drama, as is tradition, with Yoel Romero missing the 185lb mark by 0.2lbs. As a result, we still have a Whittaker vs Romero main event, but the UFC middleweight title is no longer on the line.

We will bring you all of the action as it happens, with the results of all fights being updated below in real time.

News: Whittaker Vs. Romero II is set to go down at UFC 225.

A rematch between current middleweight contender Yoel Romero, and UFC Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is set to go down once again – this time it’ll be for the undisputed middleweight title at the United Center, Chicago on June 9th.

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Round 2 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽 @ufc

A post shared by Robert Whittaker (@robwhittakermma) on Mar 14, 2018 at 5:16pm PDT

Robert Whittaker (19-4) and Yoel Romero (13-2) last fought on July 8, 2017 at UFC 213 in the T-Mobile Arena. In this bout “The Reaper” Robert Whittaker picked up the win via unanimous decision. However, the fight between these two warriors was for the Interim UFC Middleweight title, with the winner getting a crack at the legitimate champ Michael Bisping.

However, an unexpected (and somewhat complicated) situation occurred when the UFC announced Bisping would fight the former long reigning Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217. “The Count” would go onto loose this bout, which ended with GSP becoming the fourth fighter in UFC history to win two belts at two different weight classes. St-Pierre then later vacated the belt 1 month later due to medical issues, with the UFC later promoting Robert Whittaker as the undisputed champion.

Romero, the former Olympic wrestling silver medalist is coming off an outstanding knockout victory over Luke Rockhold at UFC222. This bout was originally set for the Interim UFC middleweight title. However, Yoel missed weight, hitting the scales at 187.7 lbs. This subsequently rendered him ineligible for the title, but still able to fight.

Even with Whittaker making his return from illness, it still doesn’t hide his recent success inside the Octagon. Whittaker is currently riding an 8 fight winning streak with notable wins over, Yoel Romero, Jacare Souza and Derek Brunson.

The rematch of Robert Whittaker Vs Yoel Romero will certainly be an exciting way to settle the argument of who is the greatest UFC middleweight in the world.

– Connor