Yoel Romero accuses Israel Adesanya of running away from him at UFC 248

LAS VEGAS – Following the UFC 248 main event on Sunday, there was a lot of finger-pointing going around.

After the event, UFC president Dana White and middleweight champion Israel Adesanya blamed challenger Yoel Romero for the lack of action. However, Romero (13-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC) had a different take on the situation. He said Adesanya (19-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) was to blame. Romero said he came looking for a war, but instead found a track meet.

“Simply, I expected a war today,” Romero said at a post-fight news conference. “I came to have a war and put on a show for the fans and that didn’t happen, so that’s how I feel right now. … I came here to fight, not to run. That’s what he did – run and run. I expected a worthy opponent, but I had a runner in front of me. He kicked me. I kicked him. I made a takedown. He didn’t event attempt one – not even one. I made a few. He didn’t hit me in the face. I hit him in the face.”

Sticking with the theme of running, Romero joked he should have known Adesanya’s gameplan was to run because the champion is of African descent. After a slight refusal, Romero’s translator relayed the message after some prodding from Romero.

“I ran into a great runner,” Romero said. “We need to remember that he has African descendants and Africans are very good runners.”

Romero also called Adesanya’s performance disrespectful. In Romero’s eyes, Adesanaya is not worthy of the Anderson Silva comparison often bestowed upon him.

“I think it’s a disrespect – he’s supposed to be this great champion in the UFC,” Romero said. “I think it’s a huge disrespect to compare him with Anderson Silva. Anderson Silva when he was 30 years old, he would make all of us stand up from our seats. I think it’s a huge disrespect, what Israel did (Saturday) to the fans and the UFC. People pay for the pay-per-view. They work really hard to pay for the pay-per-view to see how two warriors give it their all, and Adesanya didn’t respect that today.”

UFC 248 took place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.