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A major star for the UFC for the best part of a decade, Cuban Middleweight Yoel Romero is considered one of the best fighters to never win a UFC title. The Olympic silver medallist in Greco-Roman wrestling has a chance to change that when he takes on Israel Adesanya for the UFC Middleweight Championship at UFC 248 this weekend, and to pull it off, he’ll need to give one of his best performances to date.
Thankfully, ‘Soldier of God’ is used to delivering under pressure and today we look at 5 times that he stunned UFC fans with his Octagon performances.
#1 Debuting with a bang in 2013
Back in 2013, when the StrikeForce promotion was closed and its roster introduced into the UFC, Yoel Romero wasn’t one of the fighters that most fans were clamoring to see inside the Octagon. After all, the Cuban had only had one fight under the StrikeForce banner – a TKO loss to Rafael Feijao at 205lbs – and with just 5 professional fights to his name at the age of nearly 36, he hardly felt like a red-hot prospect to watch.
That all changed in his fight with the unheralded Clifford Starks. Making his debut at Middleweight, it was clear that Romero was an unbelievable athletic specimen, looking like he’d been carved from stone, and it didn’t take him long at all to carve Starks’ head up with a ridiculous flying knee that made it look like ‘Soldier of God’ had been launched from a cannon.
A few follow-up punches sealed the deal, and Romero had his first UFC win in astounding fashion. Despite the fight being on the preliminary card, it ensured that nobody would take the Cuban lightly again; he was now a man to firmly keep an eye on.
#2 His comeback win over Tim Kennedy
Romero followed his win over Starks with a further 3 victories and found himself faced with fellow StrikeForce veteran Tim Kennedy, a tough fighter with skills in all areas, and one who was coming off his biggest win to date, over perennial title contender Michael Bisping. The fight promised to be a barnburner, and sure enough, it lived up to the hype in every possible way.
A close first round saw Romero get the better of the striking exchanges, leaving Kennedy bloodied up, but the Cuban appeared to tire somewhat in the second round and with seconds to go, Kennedy was able to land some clean punches that had ‘Soldier of God’ badly hurt. He staggered backwards, barely able to stand – and in the end, the buzzer saved him.
Controversy then ensued between rounds; in an incident that would become better known as ‘Stoolgate’, Romero took longer than the allotted 1 minute rest period on his stool – but referee John McCarthy allowed him to continue, and he stunned everyone by coming out of his corner ready to kill. Kennedy was caught unaware with a crushing right hand, and when he got back to his feet, Romero followed up with more huge punches that put him down for good – giving the Cuban his biggest win to that point.
#3 Stopping Machida in 2015
After his win over Tim Kennedy in late 2014, Romero was clearly a title contender at 185lbs, but the title picture at the time was logjammed somewhat due to champion Chris Weidman’s defense against top contender Vitor Belfort being postponed on two occasions. The UFC attempted to match Romero with fellow contender Ronaldo Souza, but when that fight fell apart, the Cuban instead found himself faced with former Light-Heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida.
‘The Dragon’ was clearly Romero’s toughest fight to date, but ‘Soldier of God’ looked ready for the challenge. When the fight began, the first two rounds were extremely close; Machida perhaps edged the opener with his pinpoint striking, while the second was perhaps edged by Romero, who landed a couple of heavier blows. Despite the Cuban performing well though, nobody expected what came in the third round.
With Machida beginning to struggle to land clean shots due to Romero’s speed, ‘Soldier of God’ caught him unaware with a knee-tap takedown from the clinch – using his Olympic-level wrestling for the first time in the fight. And before ‘The Dragon’ could even look to reverse or escape, Romero suddenly opened up with some vicious elbows – bouncing the Brazilian’s head off the canvas and knocking him silly.
The finish wasn’t the prettiest, but it was definitely one of the more terrifying in UFC history, largely because of the sudden nature of Romero’s assault. More than any previous fight, this victory showed that ‘Soldier of God’ was a dangerous contender for the Middleweight title.
#4 Finishing Weidman in his backyard
The UFC broke into New York in 2016, and their first show in the state – UFC 205 – was a big one featuring 3 title fights. In the second fight on the main card though, former Middleweight champion Chris Weidman – a native of Long Island – was booked against Romero, with the winner looking set to fight for the title in their next bout.
This was the first time that Romero was faced with a fellow top-class wrestler, and in the first round, ‘The All-American’ surprised the Cuban by backing him up and even taking him down at one point. The second round saw some more early success for Weidman, but by the midway point, Romero had begun to turn the tide – and hit an unbelievable foot-sweep takedown to turn the tables, planting the former champion on his back to win the round.
That meant the fight was balanced on a knife-edge going into the third – but Romero didn’t waste any time allowing it to go to the judges. Instead, he came flying out of the blocks with a flying knee, knocking Weidman silly and opening him up like a faucet, with blood leaking out of a massive cut on his head. ‘Soldier of God’ had hardly endeared himself to the New York crowd with the knockout, but he’d made himself the top contender to the title – even if he wouldn’t end up facing the champion in his next fight.
#5 Knocking out Rockhold in Australia
UFC 221 in February 2018 should’ve been Romero’s big chance to finally claim the UFC Middleweight title after he missed out on the interim version of it 7 months prior when he lost to Robert Whittaker in a super-close fight. Whittaker was scheduled to defend the title against Luke Rockhold at the event, but when he was forced out with a severe staph infection, the Cuban was given another shot at glory, only to miss the 185lbs weight limit, becoming ineligible to claim the gold.
The fight went ahead anyway – with Rockhold hoping to take the title by defeating ‘Soldier of God’ – but if the California native had expected an easier fight due to Romero failing to make weight, he was sorely mistaken. Strangely enough, the early rounds of the fight saw the Cuban do very little – as if he was simply trying to work Rockhold out – but by the third round, he was ready to strike.
Romero landed a couple of solid punches in the early going during the third round, backing Rockhold up – and as the former champion backed off, ‘Soldier of God’ spotted that he’d slightly dropped his hands. That was all the invitation he needed, as he landed a crushing left hook that sent Rockhold down – and followed with another left that knocked him silly.
Despite failing to claim the title, the win proved that in moments like this, there was no more dangerous Middleweight in the world than ‘Soldier of God’. This weekend will be another chance at him to claim glory – and it’ll be up to Israel Adesanya to find a way to stop him.
