Israel Adesanya defends middleweight title against Yoel Romero at UFC 248

Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero asked and they received.

Adesanya (18-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) will defend his UFC middleweight title against Romero (13-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) in the main event of UFC 248.

UFC 248 takes place March 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card streams on pay-per-view after prelims on ESPN/ESPN+.

Rumblings of a matchup between Adesanya and Romero began all the way back on Oct. 29, when Adesanya tweeted out a screenshot of a text conversation between himself and coach Eugene Bareman. In the conversation, his coach suggested Romero be next. Adesanya agreed.

The tweet sparked weeks of respectful back-and-forth, with both men calling for a fight against one another. But why Romero? Adesanya explained his desire to fight the two-time title challenger in a November interview.

“No one asked to fight Yoel,” Adesanya said. “I said I want to fight the baddest (expletive) in there. So we called him out even though he’s on a two-fight losing streak. He’s lost three of his last four.

“For the stark, it’s not just not good for business. I’m a charitable guy and I think he’s a beast. Regardless of records. (Expletive) records. He’s a bad (expletive).”

UFC 248 will mark Adesanya’s first UFC title defense. In early October, Adesanya traded in his interim title for an undisputed one when he knocked out then-champion Robert Whittaker in the second round of their UFC 243 headliner.

Prior to the victory, Adesanya defeated Kelvin Gastelum in a “Fight of the Year” candidate at UFC 236 in April. “The Last Style Bender” is undefeated in his UFC tenure, also holding wins over Brad Tavares and Derek Brunson among others.

As for Romero, the 42-year-old middleweight has lost his two most recent fights – and three out of his most recent four. With three losses in that stretch, two were close decisions dropped to Robert Whittaker. The third, and most recent, was a close decision loss to Paulo Costa at UFC 241 in August.

This week, during UFC 246 fight week in Las Vegas, there were rumblings undefeated Paulo Costa might get the next shot at the belt instead of Romero,  as it became apparent a fight was going to have to be made soon, with less than two months to go until UFC 248. But the announcement put those talks to rest once and for all.