“Is he the UFC champion” – Yoel Romero throws shade at Israel Adesanya and refutes his comparisons to Anderson Silva
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Israel Adesanya Yoel Romero
Yoel Romero and Israel Adesanya fought each other at UFC 248 and it turned out to be one of the most boring title fights in recent times. Romero came into the fight as a new challenger for Adesanya however, his approach to the fight lacked energy. The Brazilian mostly stood in the middle of the octagon and threw very few punches at Izzy. Similarly, Adesanya mostly fought from distance and took his chances selectively. As a result, the fight had no action.
In the end, Izzy was announced the winner via decision but it wasn’t the fight everybody was expecting. Even UFC president Dana White admitted that he regretted making that fight.
“Romero knew this was his last opportunity at a world championship,” White said in the post-fight press conference. “I thought he was gonna come out like a bat out of hell, put tons of pressure on him, shoot takedowns, try to knock him out. He did literally none of that. If you’re Adesanya, he fought the smart fight. You stay on the outside, he chopped that leg apart, and he picked his punches and did what he did. Romero did a lot of moving around and acting like he was trying to fight but he never really did….Hindsight is 20/20. We probably shouldn’t have done that fight and we should have waited for Costa. Oh well, we did it.”
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“You should be ashamed”- Yoel Romero mocks Israel Adesanya for not fighting like a world champion
After such a snoozefest of a fight, Yoel Romero was extremely disappointed with Israel Adesanya’s game plan.
In an interview, Romero mentioned that what Izzy did was disrespectful as he just ran around the octagon. The fighter revealed that he has no injuries and this is not how champions fight. He said :
“It’s a lack of respect. A 43-year-old man like me, stays there and tells him(Adesanya) ‘let’s go fight’ and you see Adesanya running around the octagon?…look at my face(shows his face without any injuries), he hit my leg but look at the state I’m in, I’m moving, look. Is he the UFC champion? The ‘supposed’ best in the world? You should be ashamed.”
Romero didn’t like the fact that Izzy was being compared to Anderson Silva as the ‘Spider’ was much more entertaining.
“Are you aware that he is being compared to Anderson Silva?” Romero said in a confused way. “When Anderson Silva was 30, he used to make the whole stadium stand up! Because he used to stand in the middle of the octagon. That’s why I’ve always wanted to fight Anderson Silva because he is the best. Regardless of whether I was going to win or lose, I would have had the honour and the pleasure to face the best”
According to Romero UFC fighters are not sprinters and should fight instead of running around the octagon.
“Did you see what the boy did? If you want to see track and field, go and see Usain Bolt. People pay to see blood here! That’s your job. Your job is to fight, not run,” said Romero.
Izzy has remained undefeated in the middleweight division and is pretty active as a champion. However, his way of fighting is attracting a lot of criticism. It will be interesting to see if the fighter will do any changes in his next title defence.
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Soumya Ranjan
(2167 Articles Published)