5 greatest UFC fighters never to hold a title in the promotion

#3 Yoel Romero

Yoel Romero could've worn UFC gold had he made weight at UFC 221 for his title fight with Luke Rockhold

Cuban Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero is all set to fight Israel Adesanya for the UFC Middleweight title in a few weeks’ time at UFC 248, and if he manages to win the title, naturally he’d be removed from any kind of list like this one. If he fails, though, he’ll only have himself to blame for his lack of gold.

There’s no shame in a loss to Adesanya of course, but the truth is that Romero should already have won a title; 2018 saw him knock out Luke Rockhold in an interim Middleweight title fight, but because he failed to make the 185lbs limit in the pre-fight weigh-in, he was ineligible to hold the title.

Outside of that, Romero’s only UFC losses – prior to last summer’s razor-close decision loss at the hands of Paulo Costa – came at the hands of Robert Whittaker in a pair of title fights. And in the form of Rockhold, Chris Weidman and Lyoto Machida, ‘Soldier of God’ can list three former UFC champions amongst his victims.

Perhaps the worst part for Romero? He became the top contender for the Middleweight title after his win over Weidman – but due to the UFC choosing to match champion Michael Bisping with former Welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre rather than the Cuban, he never got his chance at ‘The Count’ – a fighter he likely would’ve beaten. Still, there’s always the Adesanya fight.