Yoel Romero to face Michael Bisping for middleweight title
Two month after defeating Chris Weidman, Yoel Romero has finally been granted a shot at Michael Bisping’s middleweight title.
Yoel Romero will now face the UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, later this year. The Cuban mixed martial artist secured his title shot by defeating, in devastating fashion, former middleweight champion Chris Weidman at UFC 205.
Romero is riding an eight-fight win streak, with wins over other high-caliber fighters in Ronaldo Souza, Lyoto Machida, and Tim Kennedy. The 39-year-old is a heavy striker, as 11 of his 13 wins have come by knockout. Romero is an extremely dangerous fighter, as he not only sports heavy hands, he also possesses a profound wrestling background, becoming a silver medalist in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
With respect to granting Romero a title shot, UFC president Dana White commented on the matter on UFC Unfiltered (h/t Fox Sports).
“Yoel Romero’s been floating out there a long time waiting for a title shot… he’s (Bisping) got to defend his title now against the No. 1 contender… If you look at what Romero did to Chris Weidman, he absolutely deserves the shot.”
Bisping, who is not known for his knockout power, dethroned then-champion Luke Rockhold at UFC Fight Night 55 in a surprising upset that left the latter fighter unconscious. The champion has secured a five-fight win streak and hasn’t lost a fight since 2014.
However, the Englishman recently found out that he’ll need surgery on his knee, due to a slightly torn meniscus. The middleweight champion commented on his upcoming surgery in an interview with Fight Network (h/t Yahoo Sports).
“I actually found out just recently I’ve got to have a knee surgery. Nothing major, just a clean up. I’ve got a slightly torn meniscus, a couple other things going on in there, so I’ve got to get that knee surgery taken care of. We scheduled that and I should be having that in the next couple of weeks. Get that taken care of, and I’ll probably be defending the belt around May, something like that I would guess.”
The MMA world will wait in great anticipation for the Bisping/Romero matchup. Given both fighter’s fighting style, it is unlikely that the bout will last all five rounds.
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