Dana White Bashes Fighter Yoel Romero For Poor Performance In UFC 248 Main Event With Israel Adesanya

UFC 248 had its share of exciting fights Saturday night, but unfortunately the main event wasn’t one of them. In the heavily anticipated middleweight championship title fight between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero, both fighters barely landed any strikes in the first round and the action never picked up after that. Adesanya retained his belt via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) as the fans booed loudly at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas upon hearing the announcement.

SLIDESHOW: 50 GREAT SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019

Throughout the fight, both fighters seemed way too hesitant to engage and only 88 total strikes actually landed. Comparing those statistics to the co-main event women’s strawweight title fight that featured champion Weili Zhang and former champion Joanna Jedrzejcyzk where over 300 total strikes were landed, the middleweight title fight was a major disappointment.

UFC president Dana White voiced his frustration with the poor performance in the post fight press conference placing a majority of the blame on Romero.

“I do (think it was Romero’s fault),” White told MMA Junkie. “He literally went out and stood in the middle of the … when the bell rang in the first round, just stood there with his hands up. You know what I mean? You’re going in and facing the world champion. This is your last shot at a championship. You shouldn’t even be here getting this title fight. It should be Paulo Costa. If he didn’t get hurt, you don’t even get this opportunity. You go in, and you do everything you can to win that fight. He literally did none of that.”

Romero received cheers from the crowd during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan as he gave his opinion on the lackluster main event. “People bought the pay-per-view to see a real fight – not this,” Romero said. “You need to have respect for people. People paid for a pay-per-view, for what? For a fight.” It’s ironic Romero would say this given his lack of urgency in the octagon.

White’s willingness to give Romero another title shot in the near future appears to be doubtful.

“A path back to the title after that performance?” White said. “You’re crazy even asking that question right now. He looked terrible tonight. He literally gave up an opportunity tonight. Maybe he comes back in his next fight and looks like Yoel Romero. But if he doesn’t, I wouldn’t expect him to fight another 10 years looking like that.”

Article by Frank DeLorenzo