It seems that Yoel Romero won’t be fighting Paulo Costa at UFC 230 in November after all, as the former middleweight title contender needs time out to recover from surgery after suffering an orbital bone injury in his last fight.
““Maybe four or five months,” Romero said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show this week about when he’ll be ready to return to action. “The doctor said, ‘Yoel needs more time.’ You know me. If you give me somebody, I take it. But you need to be smart. When the doctor says, ‘You’re ready,’ you can go. I’m waiting.”
‘The Soldier Of God’ has also pumped the brakes on a potential move up to light-heavyweight too, suggesting that he still has unfinished business at middleweight to attend to first.
“I talked with the UFC and said I’m not going to go up (to 205). Maybe in the future. People need to see the belt on my body. When I take the belt, maybe I’ll go up and fight a superfight.”
Romero will have to prove he’s still capable of making 185lbs if he wants to stay in the division for much longer though as he’s failed to make weight for his last two-fights against Luke Rockhold and Robert Whittaker.