#3 Yoel Romero
Yoel ‘Soldier of God’ Romero is a former World champion wrestler and Olympic Silver medalist in freestyle wrestling. He is one of the most terrifyingly explosive athletes to have ever competed in the sport of MMA. His martial arts base is wrestling but he is no slouch on the feet either.
With all but 2 of his MMA victories coming by way of knockout, Romero’s deadly stand-up skills are more than a threat to anyone in the UFC’s Middleweight (MW/185 pound) division. Inspite of all these accolades, one can’t deny the fact that Romero fights dirty.
And by dirty, I mean dirty to the core.
On September 27th 2014, Yoel Romero faced Tim Kennedy and gave us one of the most controversial moments in the history of the UFC. ‘Stoolgate’ as the incident is infamously referred to as today, took place owing to Romero’s corner-men as well as Romero.
Kennedy hurt Romero with a series of hooks at the end of Round 2 of their three round fight. Romero was visibly rocked and wobbled back to his corner. Before the start of Round 3, Romero stayed seated on his stool even after the referee signaled him to get up and fight.
Furthermore, Romero’s corner-men failed to leave the Octagon well after the 1-minute break had ended, giving Romero more time to recover. Romero went on to catch a visibly frustrated Kennedy with a huge left hand and finished him via ground strikes.
Romero has a habit of breaking the rules and then, feigning ignorance. Another example of Romero’s questionable behavior is his UFC 205 fight against Chris Weidman, where Romero drenched himself in water making him a slippery target for Weidman.
This left Weidman visibly frustrated and as soon as the 3rd round started Romero clipped Weidman with a huge flying knee, knocking him out. Now, it’s essential to note that messing with an opponent’s mind isn’t illegal, but greasing yourself with Vaseline or drenching yourself in water, between rounds is against the rules of MMA competition.
The reason behind this being that the drenched fighter becomes relatively tougher to take down, owing to the slipperiness created by the Vaseline/water all over his body.
On January 13th 2016, Romero was informed of a potential USADA anti-doping policy violation. He reportedly tested positive for ibutamoren, a growth hormone release stimulator. Romero and his team claimed that a supplementary product that he was using was contaminated with traces of the aforementioned PED.
Later on, an unopened version of the said supplement did, in fact, contain traces of the banned steroid. However, the entire situation was re-assessed by USADA and they handed down a 6-month suspension to Romero.
All arguments aside, facts are facts, and Romero is in no way an ideal sportsman. His in-fight greasing antics coupled with his drug-test failure and the infamous ‘Stoolgate’, have landed him at number 3 on our list.
