Fighter On Fighter! Breaking Down ‘Soldier Of God!’

Yoel Romero | Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Cuban Olympic wrestler, Yoel Romero, will square off with kickboxing sensation and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight strap-hanger, Israel Adesanya, this Saturday (March 7, 2020) at UFC 248 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Romero, 42, is still the most athletic man in the Middleweight division, and it’s absolutely absurd. “Soldier of God” may get tired on occasion, but that’s long been the case. Otherwise, he shows zero signs of decline. It’s also true that Romero has lost his last two bouts, a pair of very close split-decision defeats. Yet, unlike the Cejudo vs. Aldo match up, this title bout is receiving very little criticism or complaint. Romero is just a special fighter, and people are happy to watch him fight pretty much anyone.

Let’s take a closer look at his skill set:

Striking

Romero has a process to his kickboxing, it’s simply a strange one. The Cuban knockout artist is very aware of his own power, and his end goal is largely to land a clean shot across the jaw.

Outside of the occasional set ups and traps, Romero’s overall strategy is to stab at his opponent with range kicks and keep his foe guessing with lazy movements and half-hearted strikes. Once the opening arises, Romero changes up his speed and blasts his opponent with shocking power, made even more surprising by the sudden switch from lackadaisical to deadly.

The big benefit to this tactic — besides high accuracy — is that it allows Romero to conserve energy. As a heavily-muscled and older athlete, Romero cannot afford to throw every punch and kick at full speed. If he expended himself at such a high pace, he’d slow down heavily unless he scored a knockout almost immediately. By staying relaxed and taking breaks, Romero allows himself to carry power deep into the fight.

While at range, Romero feints quite actively to disguise his attacks. Before long, he’ll begin finding his range with kicks. Romero mixes it up quite well, throwing both roundhouse kicks and more flashy techniques such as side kicks, hook kicks and teeps. Romero’s side kick did serious damage to Robert Whittaker’s lead leg, punishing his Karate-style stance.

That kick can also help land set up Romero’s power punches. Notably, Romero stopped Tim Kennedy by using a side kick as a distraction to gain the angle and fire a powerful cross-hook (GIF).

Out of the Southpaw stance, Romero can deliver seriously hard round kicks. After throwing out a lot of feeler kicks, Romero will slam home round kicks to the legs, body and head. When Romero does commit to those strikes, he really knocks around his opponent. In addition to the feints and kicks, Romero will throw punches toward his opponents’ legs. These can be mistaken for takedown attempts and help set up Romero’s overhand. Above all else, they help keep his opponent hesitant and on the outside.

A great example of Romero’s range trickery came in the first round of his bout with Ronaldo Souza. “Jacare” was looking to pressure and counter the Olympian, and Romero had a great counter up his sleeve. There’s no better time to throw the spinning back fist than as an opponent moves in, so Romero followed up a kick with the back fist to both reset his stance and clobber Souza (GIF).

Romero is always looking for a moment to land a full power left hand. It can be set up by feints, hand-fighting (GIF) and half-speed punches. In addition, Romero is quite good at timing his opponent if his foes lunges forward face-first, both with the counter left hand and counter elbow (GIF). Countering with the left leads into an important part of Romero’s game, which is stopping the pressure. If his foe is pressuring him relentlessly, Romero will be unable to take rest breaks, and his cardio will suffer as a result.

Romero uses the takedown to stop pressure quite often, and he builds from there. Against both Chris Weidman and Clifford Starkes, Romero leaped into a flying knee and ended the bout. Both wrestlers were attempting to push the pace and shoot on Romero, but they failed to occupy him with punches first and paid the price (GIF).

Romero’s ability to find an opening was on display when faced off against a fellow Southpaw kickboxer in Luke Rockhold. Both men are accustomed to fighting right-handed athletes and were forced to adjust. In Romero’s case, he simplified his game quite a bit. After taking a round to watch Rockhold — who genuinely showed sharper boxing than ever before — Romero realized that his foe would still back straight up each time he advanced.

As a result, Romero found a lot of success with the switch-cross. Firing a jab and switching stance to Orthodox at the same time covers distance, creates a new angle, and it loads up a power shot. Romero would hit the switch-cross — something he set up with stiff jabs to the body and leg — then explode into a series of hooks and overhands, rushing Rockhold back into the fence and smashing him.

In the end, though, boxing basics and old habits ended Rockhold’s night. Romero used a double jab to cover a bit of distance, allowing his left to beat Rockhold’s favorite check hook (GIF).

In the rematch with Whittaker and against Paulo Costa, Romero did a lot of work on the counter. He was willing to hang back in exchanges and shell up, keeping his defenses high and trusting his strong chin (and iron neck muscles) to keep him safe. He might take some licks in those exchanges, but Romero is confident that when he does fire back, it will land with serious impact (GIF).

Wrestling

One of the most credentialed wrestlers in UFC, Romero secured a silver medal in the 2000 Olympics. Interestingly, despite proving himself excellent at scoring takedowns, Romero is not the best at containing his foe on the mat, and wrestling is generally not a much part of his path to success.

Still, Romero’s explosion is never more obvious than when he’s looking to score a takedown. Romero can change levels unbelievably quick, driving through a double-leg with more power than most even while terribly off-balance (GIF). It’s a difficult thing to deal with — there’s just no one else who moves like “Soldier of God.” The flying knee is actually a frequent double leg set up, as he’ll leap high into the air only to suddenly drop to the mat and explode forward.

Because of his lazy style, opponents sometimes think they are free to throw opposite Romero, who doesn’t appear to be ready to answer. However, Romero generally does an excellent job of timing his takedowns, either looking to drive through mid-kick or ducking under a punch (GIF). Opposite Whittaker, Romero repeatedly timed his lunging left to get good position on the Aussie’s hips.

Romero has an interesting habit of timing a shot perfectly at the waist and driving into the body lock rather than finish his double leg at the hips. He’s great in the clinch too, and often Romero finishes such a shot with an inside trip.

In one example of Romero’s excellent clinch work, Romero used a sacrifice throw to slam Brad Tavares to the mat. The over-under in the center of the Octagon is not usually a position where takedowns are landed. However, Romero showcased his wrestling mastery by taking a deep step and blocking Tavares’ knee with his leg. With his hips tight to Tavares’ knee, Romero was able to pop his hips in and get Tavares airborne, making the throw possible (GIF). Tavares is a very difficult man to take down — he actually was a favorite over Romero at the time — but he had no real answer to Romero’s power and wrestling.

The best wrestling performance of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career likely came in the second round against Weidman. Romero controlled the clinch masterfully opposite a truly talented wrestler, but the cherry on top was a slick foot sweep. As Romero yanked on his opponent’s lat to spin him, he blocked Weidman’s near leg with his own foot to prevent Weidman from recovering his footing (GIF). It’s simple enough, but to execute that type of foot sweep on a two-time Division 1 All-American is certainly an accomplishment.

In the first match with Whittaker, Romero proved that he’s remarkable difficult to stop when committed to the shot. The Cuban firmly controlled the first two rounds with relentless takedowns, jamming Whittaker into the fence and putting him down repeatedly by level-changing back to the shot or tripping out a base leg. However, this amount of wrestling did tire Romero, which is why this is not his usual strategy despite its effectiveness.

Another rarely seen wrestling move in Romero’s arsenal is the ankle pick. A common enough technique in freestyle wrestling — in which wrestlers stay very low to the ground and thus are closer to each other’s ankles — Romero has somehow scored the same takedown simply by picking his foe’s foot off the mat.

Romero isn’t impossible to take down simply because he stays so relaxed on his feet. However, none of his opponent’s have had any success holding him down, as Romero simply pushes his opponent away and jumps to his feet. You can’t teach insane athleticism or decades of high-level wrestling instincts (GIF). Until he’s greatly fatigued, taking and keeping Romero down is not much of an option.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Oddly enough, Romero has not been very successful at holding his opponent to the mat after landing the takedown. Usually, his opponent is able to work back to his feet in about a minute or so. Plus, in that minute or so of control, Romero’s general focus is securing an opportunity to end the bout with brutal elbows.

For whatever it’s worth, Romero did use the kimura a few times against Tavares. Tavares gamely looked to wrestle with Romero, hunting for the single leg takedown. He managed to get into good position a couple times, but Romero would lock up the figure four grip on his opponent’s inside arm and wrench his foe over. It wasn’t exactly technical jiu-jitsu, but Romero was able to power through and reverse position.

Conclusion

Romero is a special fighter, a unique athlete who simply fights different than almost all of his contemporaries. He’s also a real threat to Adesanya regardless of his current win streak, which gives this fight potential to be another instant Middleweight title classic.

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 248 fight card this weekend right here, 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+.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 248: “Adesanya vs. Romero” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.

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Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.