Fans were left stunned recently when one of the middleweight division’s leading contenders Yoel Romero was released from the UFC, and in a new interview with ESPN after signing for Bellator, ‘The Soldier Of God’ has explained what led up to his premature exit from the promotion.
“First and foremost, it was something that was completely unexpected,” Romero told ESPN. “I was already training very hard, getting ready.
“We were already thinking of fighting in January or February at 185 or 205.
“We were looking to fight with the top three in either division. My managers explained this to the presidency, the top of the UFC.
“They wanted (me) to fight with Uriah Hall, Derek Brunson, and we explained to them that it didn’t make sense for (me) to fight with these young men.
“We had an idea we were chasing, the world title. The way we were training, making it happen, we knew that we had one or two fights and then we would go for the belt.
“Our thought was that fighting any of these guys that are in the back of the roster, that it was taking steps backward, not forward.”
Romero went on to reveal that there was even a suggestion of fighting at light-heavyweight, but when they also couldn’t come to an agreement on that either then it appears that the UFC’s patience quickly ran out.
“My managers were back and forth non-stop with the matchmakers and with (UFC president Dana White), and there was no accordance.
“They came back to us with an offer to fight Johnny Walker at 205. At 205, we wanted whomever triumphed between ‘Marreta’ (Santos) or Glover (Teixeira).
“The managers were initially saying we wanted to fight with Dominick Reyes, Glover Teixeira, ‘Marreta,’ or Anthony Smith, and it was kind of like a back and forth, kind of quiet on their end, and once they reached back it was to let (me) know that we couldn’t come to an agreement, and they were going to commit to the release.”
