After being released by the UFC earlier this month, Yoel Romero has now found a new home in the Bellator promotion.
Bellator boss Scott Coker had initially signalled that he wouldn’t be looking to sign ‘The Soldier Of God’ when he was unexpectedly let go by the UFC, but it seems he’s since had a change of heart as he’s now secured Romero’s services in a multi-fight deal.
The 43-year-old Romero and Coker have crossed paths before when he briefly fought for the Strikeforce promotion back in 2011 before being welcomed into the UFC, where he’d go on to fight multiple times for the middleweight title.
In fact, Romero is only just coming off his latest title encounter back in March of this year, where he lost out by unanimous decision to current titleholder Israel Adesanya.
That marked Romero’s third loss in a row, but he has remained very competitive against the division’s best despite his advancing years, and there’s a sense that he could still have enough left in the locker to be a major asset for the Bellator promotion, where he’s planning to fight at 205lbs.
Despite signalling recently that they were looking to step away from signing ex-UFC fighters and instead focus on their own homegrown talent, Romero marks the second high-profile fighter that Bellator have brought in over the past week, with Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson’ also set to compete for them in 2021.
