Fans were baffled when the UFC released Yoel Romero, with three fights left on his contract. Although “Soldier of God” was just 1-3 his last four fights, 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. UFC president Dana White initially said that the league was cutting 60 fighters from the 600+ roster, to make way for new, young talent. Romero is 43, so it made some degree of sense. Then news emerged that the release was apparently over matchmaking, with Romero not interested in the fights offered.
There was further bafflement when Bellator MMA passed on Romero. CEO Scott Coker initially explained that the promotion was focused on building main event talent from the bottom up.
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,” he said earlier in December. “We have kind of gotten away from signing the OGs we used to sign back in the day.”
However, Coker did not close the door fully.
The dialogue will always be open,” he said. “Things change quickly in this sport, so you never know.”
Then Bellator signed Romero to a multi-fight deal. During a recent interview with MMA Junkie‘s Mike Bohn, Nolan King assisting, Coker explained the change.
Yoel started with us in Strikeforce back in 2008, said Coker. Part of me wanted to do it. Part of me didn’t want to do it. After we signed ‘Rumble’ we had the chance to [sign] Yoel. We passed. I’ll tell you, honestly, the amount of support he got coming through our doors and through the social channels really was impressive. Everybody wanted to see the Yoel Romero vs. ‘Rumble’ Johnson fight. I huddled up with my team.
I’ll tell you one thing in this situation people don’t really realize: Even if we said we were going to pass, we talk to these agents all the time – every day. Yoel’s name kept coming up and coming up. Finally, I just said, ‘You know what? Let’s do it. Let’s just add him into the mix.’
He’s an amazing talent. He still is somebody that is very dangerous. He definitely can still fight. I said, ‘Let’s put him in the mix, and let’s just go for it.’ I’m glad we did. I had a little chat with him. It was great. He seems like such a nice guy and very mature. I’m looking forward to putting him into our 205-pound mix sometime next year.
Bellator does not yet publish official rankings, but a reasonable guess is:
Champion: Vadim Nemkov
1. Anthony Johnson
2. Yoel Romero
3. Ryan Bader
4. Corey Anderson
5. Phil Davis
Plus Lyoto Machida, middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi superfighting up, and several other world-class fighters.
UG, who do you want to see Romero fight first?
