Hieron: Romero already paid heavy price for weight miss

Yoel Romero took a short-notice fight vs. Luke Rockhold for the UFC interim middleweight title, when division champion Robert Whittaker dropped out. For the first time, Romero failed to make weight. As a consequence, he was disqualified from earning the title with a win, although Rockhold was. And Romero was fined 30% of his purse. And in the eyes of some, he shouldn’t be eligible for a title shot.

However, retired welterweight Jay Hieron appeared recently on MMAjunkie Radio, and offered an informed, contrary position.

He got penalized, said Hieron, as transcribed by MMAjunkie Radio. He’s not all happy right now. He got 30 percent of his purse taken, which is a lot. He has the belt – in his own stomach, in his own house right now, he could be interim belt champion, which he’s not.

He’s penalized. But you go out and put a performance on like that, you can’t argue that. He should definitely get the shot.

I get it. You’re in a different country. You’re in a totally different timeframe. You’ve retained water, so it’s already not going as planned. I get it.

He probably thought he could make weight. It doesn’t matter. You go out and seal the deal like that against the No. 1 contender, the guy that was the former champion, the guy that was supposed to fight for the belt. And you’re the replacement? You take him out in that fashion, there’s no questions.

You’re the next challenger. No fighter would say no and it doesn’t matter: After everything that happened, he went out there and sealed the deal. He’s the one that’s being penalized. He’s the one that has to feel everything. All the fans can say what they want.

Romero was fined $105,000, was ineligible for any post-fight bonuses, and despite winning, is not the UFC interim middleweight champion. That’s plenty of punishment for missing weight for the first time, on two-weeks notice. Next fighter to get a title shot vs. Whittaker has to be Yoel Romero.