The UFC 221 main event was thrown into further disarray on Friday night when Yoel Romero missed weight for the interim middleweight title bout.
Following two attempts to make the 185-pound limit, Romero failed to do so and checked in with a final attempt at 187.7 pounds.
Brett Okamoto of ESPN confirmed on Friday night that Luke Rockhold would still take the fight.
Rockhold would have had enormous leverage as this pay-per-view is a one fight show from a marquee standpoint and losing the title fight would have been catastrophic.
The interim middleweight title can only be won by Rockhold while a Romero victory would only provide him with a win on his record with no claim to the interim championship.
The UFC 221 event was originally headlined by Robert Whittaker defending his middleweight title against Rockhold and was forced to withdraw due to a series of health issues. Romero stepped in to replace Whittaker and an interim title was announced for the bout’s winner.
Late tonight at POST Wrestling, we will have a UFC 221 post-show with MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn.
So to recap, we now have two Floridians fighting over 10,000 miles away in Australia, with only one fighting for a fake belt, while an actual Australian — who beat the guy not fighting for the fake belt to win another fake belt last summer and then won a real belt via Twitter – watches from the crowd, in a fight that was supposed to headline a free TV card last year but now costs $65 because reasons. And there’s no undercard.
It’s 2018, how is Weight cutting still around in UFC if almost every card is effected by it. So glad that I didn’t spend the AU$49.95 on this underwhelming card in my option.
I trust John’s source’s, but just to put this card into perspective of importance it is yet to make more than a footnote on the Australian sports media cable sports news broadcasts.
Romero took the fight under 2 weeks notice…him missing weight isn’t a shocker…people learn about training before they make stupid claims of weight class placings.
UFC officially announced Whittaker was out and Romero was in on January 13th. That’s 4 weeks ago, not 2. He also was already in camp for a fight that would have been just two weeks from today. This is not Sam Alvey trying to cut 30 pounds in 6 days and then missing. “Not enough time” is a pretty lame excuse when you had a month and you were already training.
All good.Whether two or four weeks, I still feel Romero should be at 205. Him missing weight also goes towards his coaches. That’s what they get paid to do. Btw, TroyMcClure: I will always read your posts with Phil Hartman’s voice.
“Your Mom and I, we’re not hip. You know with the use of crack, boom, and pow. So we invited an individual. Currently he’s waiting in the basement…”
