Fans were baffled with the UFC recently released Yoel Romero, with three fights left on his contract. He was just 1-3 his last four fights, but three of the four losses were in title fights, the only loss that wasn’t a title fight won Fight of the Night, and two of the three losses were razor-thin. However, UFC president Dana explained that the league would be cutting 60 fighters from the 600+ roster, to make way for new talent. And Yoel Romero is 43, in a promotion focused intently on finding the next precious few figures that can drive major pay per view buys.

There was further bafflement when Bellator MMA passed on Romero. On Wednesday, CEO Scott Coker explained why.

We got a call from his agent, and originally we just passed, said Coker. If you look at our roster and how many fighters we have on this roster and how many fights we’re going to do, there are only so many TV slots. We have kind of gotten away from signing the OGs we used to sign back in the day. That’s because guys like A.J. [McKee] are coming up. Ilima-Lei [Macfarlane] is developing into a main event fighter.

We’ve basically built from the bottom up. We have a lot of great fighters that are on the roster that we’ve built over the last four to five years. We were kind of headed in a different direction. I was happy with the way the roster is right now not adding anybody.

The dialogue will always be open. Things change quickly in this sport, so you never know, but the initial thought was that I talked to my guys and they thought it was better for us to pass.

Bellator 254 takes place on Thursday at Mohegan Sun Arena. Undefeated Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (11-0) fights undefeated Juliana Velasquez (10-0) in the main event.

h/t Nolan King for MMA Junkie