Edmen Shahbazyan certainly doesn’t lack courage as his dream fight is with former middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero.

Shahbazyan is one of the UFC’s most promising youngsters. At 21 years of age, he is already 10-0 with finishes in nine of those outings. He’s also undefeated in three UFC fights, most recently submitting the vastly more experienced Jack Marshman at UFC 239 last month.

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With UFC 241 airing on ESPN+ on Saturday, the Armenian-American is keeping a close eye on two potential future opponents when Romero battles Paulo Costa. In Shahbazyan’s eyes, Romero wins that contest as he proceeded to wax lyrical about the “Soldier of God” and why he views him as the very elite in the division.

“They’re both incredible fighters,” Shahbazyan told Helen Yee in a recent interview. “I think Yoel is going to take it, in my opinion. He’s one of my favorite fighters in the middleweight division.

“People have asked me if I ever had a dream fight, it would be Yoel Romero because I think he’s the greatest one out of all the middleweights. The most talented and the most credentials in my opinion.”

Romero is undoubtedly one of the best middleweights in the world, title or not. And unless the UFC want to risk a green prospect against the heavy-handed Cuban, it would probably be best for them to look towards more favorable matchups for now.

Shahbazyan, however, wants the very best. When asked about his return, he revealed he planned on getting an opponent that could see him crack the top 15 of the middleweight rankings.

“Join the journey guys,” he added. “Look out for my next fight. It’s going to be most likely [me] break into the top 15, so be on the lookout for me.”