Santos Rips Adesanya — ‘Romero Clearly Won’

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Longtime middleweight contender Yoel Romero dropped a five-round unanimous decision to reigning 185-pound kingpin Israel Adesanya following their tepid five-round headliner atop the UFC 248 pay-per-view (PPV) event back in March.

Not everyone agrees on who won the fight, but just about everyone agrees it “sucked.” That includes former middleweight power puncher Thiago Santos, who moved up to light heavyweight to battle 205-pound kingpin Jon Jones.

“Horrible fight,” Santos told MMA Fighting. “There’s not much to say. Romero did his part. Romero moved forward, tried to bring more of a fight, but the champion was very conservative, so it was a boring fight to watch. You can’t say I was robbed in my fight. It was very close, there’s no other way, but the Romero fight, I think Romero clearly won.”

Adesanya improved to 19-0 with the victory while the Cuban fell to 13-5. “Soldier of God” has now dropped three straight and four of his last five. More troubling is the fact that Romero turns 44 at the end of the month and maybe facing a rapid decline.

As for Santos (21-7), his narrow decision loss to Jones snapped a four-fight win streak but more importantly, sent him to the hospital with multiple injuries. “Marreta” is expected to make his Octagon return this summer against an opponent to be named.