Liborio: Yoel wasn’t out on stool between rounds
“When I was talking to Yoel, he was already back. He wasn’t out. He was talking to me. I told him ‘you have to win the third round,’ and he said ‘I got it, coach.’”
At UFC 178 Yoel Romero infamously stayed on his stool at the end of the second round. When Referee John McCarthy came over to get him up, “Big John” noticed the UFC’s cutman had left too much grease on the fighter’s face, and directed Romero’s corner to clean it up. The corner however did not speak English, and 30 seconds passed before the fight resumed.
Opponent Tim Kennedy in the mean time thought he had won the fight. Romero won via strikes in the third, a remarkable turn around from the end of the second, when he was very nearly finished by strikes.
Romero’s head coach ATT co-founder Ricardo Liborio spoke with Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting about the controversial fight.
“I wasn’t inside the Octagon when it all happened,” said Liborio. “I was giving instructions outside the cage because Paulino, his boxing coach, doesn’t speak a single word in English. He only speaks Spanish. When they said seconds out, I went back to the corner and didn’t see what happened.
“But when I was talking to Yoel, he was already back. He wasn’t out. He was talking to me. I told him ‘you have to go straight forward and win the round, you have to win the third round,’ and he said ‘I got it, coach.’”
“I talked to Big John after the fight. Big John said he went there and saw that there was too much vaseline on the cut. Big John asked Paulino to go there and clean it up, but Paulino doesn’t speak English, he didn’t understand what was going on, so he started to wipe his body. Yoel was sitting there, waiting for someone to clean him.
“I didn’t see anything going on there. I first heard about it when Joe Rogan asked him about it, and my Spanish isn’t that good either [laughs]. I don’t know how long did it take for the fight to restart, but Yoel wasn’t out and he never asked to stop the fight. The whole situation was a mess. Paulino never intended to win some time, and that’s not my style. I would never do something like that.”
“Yoel’s goal is to win the title. If the UFC thinks the rematch is interesting, Yoel would take it. But if you saw the fight, you know Yoel was winning it. I’m not taking anything away from Tim Kennedy, he’s a tough fighter, but Yoel won the fight. And it’s not a coincidence that he knocked him out in the third round. And I’m sure it would be exactly the same if they do another fight.”
“I just wanna know who’s next. He’s not getting any younger, he doesn’t have much time left. That’s how I see the situation now. The UFC makes the call, but I think the next step should be a top 5 opponent. Whoever they want. There’s no easy fight in the UFC, and Yoel wants to get to the title. That’s his mission.”