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It's all but official. Brett Okamoto of ESPN confirmed that UFC 248 on March 7th will be headlined by Israel Adesanya vs Yoel Romero for the UFC Middleweight Championship.
It will be the second title fight on the card - with Weili Zhang vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the Strawweight Championship being the co-main event. It's a good card but two fighters have already pulled out - with former Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker pulling out of his bout against Jared Cannonier due to "undisclosed personal reasons", while Jeremy Stephens pulled out from his bout against Calvin Kattar.
While Cannonier is expected to stay on the card, Kattar vs Stephens will reportedly be rescheduled. Hopefully, the main event can stay intact. The last two times that Yoel Romero had a title fight - he ended up missing weight both times - within four months.
He fought only once in 2019 - losing to Paulo Costa. Costa has a bicep injury that's expected to keep him out for half of the year at least, meaning that he couldn't get a title shot that he was originally scheduled for.
Not wanting to wait for so long, the ever-active Champion decided to make a bold move and call out Yoel Romero for a title fight to "prove the doubters" wrong. While Dana White was skeptical at first (wanting Romero to get another win before a title shot), he eventually gave in to Adesanya's request and the Kiwi Champion will meet the man who many consider as the most dangerous in the 185-pound division.
Will Adesanya be able to get through Romero? It's certainly an interesting fight stylistically and it's safe to assume that this one won't be ending in the early rounds. Romero has three losses in the UFC - all of which are by decision. He's only been finished once in his career and Adesanya will look to add to that tally on March 7th.
