Sorry Judges, But You Won’t Be Needed For This Title Fight

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Coming off two consecutive decision losses to Robert Whittaker (split) and Paulo Costa (unanimous), Romero is done letting the judges have a say in the outcome of his fights, and he wasn’t shy in predicting a knockout victory over “The Last Stylebender.”

“I knock him out,” said Romero on a recent edition of Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.

According to Yoel, he and his team have been studying Adesanya very closely and have picked up on a few of his tendencies, which he is comfortable in saying will pay big dividends for him come fight night.

“Me and my team see he do a little mistake and that’s the key for the fight. Now, we are working a lot on this. I feel comfortable, I feel great,” he added. “The second point I remember, the last fight the judges say I don’t win the fight because I don’t finish. So I say, ‘Okay, alright.’”

As we’ve seen in the past, “Soldier of God” has the power and skill to end fights in a rather violent fashion (examples here and here). Adesanya, however, has yet to taste defeat and has proven to be a tough nut to crack.

But at 42 years of age, Romero is still one of the toughest and scariest challenges in all of MMA. That said, the time could be ticking on Romero’s championship opportunities, so it could be now or never for the “boogeyman.”

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 248 fight card below, starting with the Fight Pass/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.