Yoel Romero reveals reason he was cut from UFC contract: ‘I was giving a bad taste to the weight class’
Former UFC middleweight title challenger, Yoel Romero has opened up on his departure from the Octagon some five years ago, claiming he believes his presence in the weight class amongst other contenders left a “bad taste” in the promotor’s mouths.
Romero, a former title challenger during his memorable tenure with the UFC, most recently came unstuck in a title fight against then-champion, Israel Adesanya at the beginning of 2020, in a hugely forgettable decision loss.
However, during his pomp, the Cuban star had also turned in a host of notable victories over the likes of Derek Brunson, Brad Tavares, Lyoto Machida, Jacare Souza, Chris Weidman, and Luke Rockhold of note.
Yoel Romero addresses sudden UFC departure
And eventually landing in Bellator MMA, the PFL (Professional Fighters League), and this year, GFL (Global Fight League), Romero claims his ability to stop Rockhold and push emerging force, Paulo Costa the distant left a “bad taste” in the mouth of executives and promotional brass.
“I’ve been giving, as I say, bad taste, right?” Yoel Romero told OverdogsEspanol. “To the division. Every time they faced me, they were injured.
Paulo Costa starts to come out. They wanted to sell the young, strong, well-dressed boy,” Yoel Romero explained “Besides, Paulo is handsome, you know. Pretty boy. It makes you competitive So I said, well, two knockout [artists]. This is going to sell. In fact, the best fight of the year came out [of it]. Do you understand? Now, what they expected was for Paulo to knock me out. And it didn’t happen. And in fact, that fight, for many, I won it.”
Initially scheduled to take on veteran Uriah Hall in August of the same year as his departure, Romero would withdraw from the pairing due to undisclosed reasons, and was handed his walking papers before the turn of the year.
Set for his GFL debut later this summer, Romero is set to tackle former UFC middleweight contender and ex-Bellator MMA titleholder, Gegard Mousasi in a new pairing.
