Israel Adesanya is down to fight Yoel Romero regardless what the numbers say on the scale.
The UFC middleweight champion discussed Romero’s history and past struggles making championship weight ahead of their 185-pound clash in the main event of UFC 248, which goes down in Las Vegas on March 7 at T-Mobile Arena.
“Weight has never been problem for me, but I will get a big chunk of his money if he doesn’t make the weight,” Adesanya said at Friday’s UFC 248 press conference in Houston.
The champ added that he remembers watching Romero struggle to make 185 pounds at UFC 221 back in 2018. The two fighters fought and won their respective bouts on the same card in Perth, Australia.
Romero (13-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) faced Luke Rockhold for what was supposed to be for the interim middleweight title. Despite wining in impressive fashion, the Cuban fighter but missed weight, and was ineligible to win the belt. Adesanya (18-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) took on Rob Wilkinson and made a successful UFC debut.
Despite the numbers and stats, Romero denies having any issues with the scale.
“Believe me, I’m not thinking about the weight now,” Romero said. “Never in my life I’ve had problems with my weight. I don’t have a problem, but for many years, that’s been the big question. Like 25 years I do that weight. The first time I fought in that weight was in 1997. It’s no problem for me, it’s been many years.”
Adesanya interrupted and disputed Romero’s words.
“That’s a lie, you’ve missed weight three or four times,” Adesanya said. “How is that true? You’ve missed weight already.”
The 42-year-old Romero has missed weight for two championship bouts – first at UFC 221, then at UFC 225 against then-middleweight champ Robert Whittaker. Despite the previous history, Romero is not concerned with his weight cut for UFC 248, and says missing weight won’t be an issue.
Israel Adesanya, Yoel Romero verbally spar over Romero's past weight-cut issues
