Yoel Romero— The Boogeyman

If you step up to face the Cuban Olympian in the Octagon, there’s a strong chance you won’t leave the same fighter as you arrived. Let’s take a look at how most of his UFC opponents fared before and after colliding with him in the cage.

Derek Brunson- UFC Fight Night 35 [1/15/14]

UFC record before: 2–0–0 UFC record since: 9–4–0

Romero finished Derek Brunson late in the third round, landing 13 unanswered elbows to his ribcage. Behind on all three judges’ scorecards heading into the third round, Yoel Romero went on to outland Brunson 37–16 in the final period, securing the finish and comeback victory. Brunson suffered a broken jaw in this fight and was transported to the hospital afterwards, per UFC president Dana White. One of the only fighters with a winning record after meeting Yoel, Derek has been finished by strikes four times since November of 2016.

Tim Kennedy- UFC 178: Johnson vs. Cariaso [9/27/14]

UFC record before: 3–0 UFC record since: 0–2

Tied 19–19 through two rounds, Yoel mustered a rally late in the third round to finish Tim Kennedy by strikes. Almost finishing the fight in the second round, Kennedy held Romero’s glove as he rained down punches onto the defenseless Cuban. What came to be known as “Stoolgate” unfolded in between the second and third round, with Romero taking extra time on his stool to rest before the fight resumed. A seemingly refreshed Romero walked towards the center of the cage to start the third round, and despite running out of steam towards the end of the round, mustered enough strength to finish an also-gassing Tim Kennedy. Kennedy went on a two year hiatus, only to return in 2016 and lose his next contest by knockout against Kelvin Gastelum before retiring.

Lyoto Machida- UFC Fight Night 70 [6/27/15]

UFC record before: 14–6 UFC record since: 2–2

Again finding himself down on the scorecards early, Romero rebounded to win the second round and finish Machida in the third. Moving to 6–0 at the time with five knockouts, Romero took advantage of his pressure and the smaller UFC cage to become the second man to stop Lyoto Machida with strikes. Despite facing the best striker he had seen to this point, Romero outlanded the karate wizard 44–31. Machida went on to lose his next fight via first round knockout to Derek Brunson, winning two more fights in the UFC before signing with Bellator in 2018.

Jacare Souza- UFC 194: Aldo vs. McGregor [12/12/15]

UFC record before: 5–0 UFC record since: 5–5

Yoel Romero escaped with a split decision win in his meeting with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. Only two out of 17 media members on mmadecisions.com voted Romero the victor of the bout. Outlanding Souza in the first round 27–5 Romero surprisingly did his best work of the fight early, securing a 10–8 round on one of the judges scorecards. Romero faded as this fight went on, losing the third round on all of the judges scorecards. Interestingly enough, Yoel displayed his ability to absorb techniques and replicate them as he knocked Jacare down with the same spinning backfist that Romero was finished with by Rafael Cavalcante in his first MMA loss back in 2011. Souza rebounded with a pair of victories immediately after his loss to Romero, but has failed to maintain the consistency he carried with him into facing Yoel.

Chris Weidman- UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor [11/12/16]

UFC record before: 9–1 UFC record since: 1–4

Although one could argue that Chris Weidman’s ill-advised wheel kick attempt against Luke Rockhold changed his career forever, facing Romero next certainly didn’t give Weidman much of a fighting chance to reverse his fortunes. Largely dominated, Weidman found himself stuffed on seven of his eight takedown attempts, while Romero was successful on two out of three shots. Also outlanding Chris 13–2 on significant strikes to the head, Yoel came out of this fight fairly unscathed. He landed one of his most violent and explosive knockout blows in this bout, not only kneeing Weidman once on his way up into the air but also kneeing him on his way down as well, forcing Weidman’s head into his own knee. In classic Yamasaki fashion, Romero able to land multiple follow-up shots, despite the fact that Chris Weidman was clearly too injured to continue. Since the conclusion of this bout Weidman has gone on to lose three of his last four fights by knockout, with retirement seeming more and more realistic despite his wishes to continue fighting.

Robert Whittaker- UFC 213 & UFC 221: Romero vs. Whittaker [7/8/17, 6/9/18]

UFC record before: 10–2 UFC record since: 2–1

Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker pushed each other to their absolute physical limits throughout ten rounds of violence and hell. First meeting at UFC 213 for the vacant Interim Middleweight Championship, Whittaker escaped with the victory 48–47 on all three judges scorecards. Romero started strong winning the first two rounds, but lost the remaining three rounds on every scorecard. Landing roughly 200 combined strikes on each other in the first fight, Romero and Whittaker turned the heat up in the rematch to land a total of 278 strikes through yet another five round war. The second bout saw Romero knock down Whittaker twice, nearly finishing him. However, Whittaker survived, winning a narrow split decision. Much has been made of the ten rounds Whittaker spent with Romero, attributing his recent pullouts and knockout loss against Israel Adesanya to the damage he sustained in the two fights. Whittaker suffered a broken thumb in their second fight while also suffering ligament damage in his knee. Since meeting Romero for the last time in June of 2018 Whittaker has fought just once, in October of 2019, while pulling out of three fights since first meeting Romero. In his most recent bout, Whittaker lost his middleweight title to undefeated phenom Israel Adesanya after being knocked down twice and finished early in the second round.

Luke Rockhold- UFC 221: Romero vs. Rockhold [2/10/18]

UFC record before: 6–2 UFC record since: 0–2

Prior to facing Yoel Romero, Luke Rockhold was on a quest for redemption. After losing his title to Michael Bisping at UFC 199 and being publicly humiliated, Rockhold set out to earn his belt back and was awarded an interim Middleweight Title shot after finishing the still-newly acquired David Branch by strikes. Unfortunately for Yoel Romero, he missed weight for the championship bout, rendering himself ineligible for the title. After two and a half closely contested rounds that left Romero with a potentially broken leg from Rockhold’s kicks, the Cuban blasted Rockhold with a left hand that left him sitting down half-conscious against the Octagon. Yoel lined up a Marge Simpson-esque “bus-driver” uppercut, fully separating Luke from consciousness and ending his title chase dreams. Rockhold went on a leave of absence after his loss, returning in July of 2019 at light heavyweight only to suffer yet another knockout loss at the hands of Jan Blachowicz. Since his most recent loss, Luke has all but confirmed retirement for the time being.

Conclusion

Yoel Romero’s reputation as the UFC middleweight boogeyman is well deserved, even at the ripe young age of 42. Fighters have lost years off of their lives trying to defeat him and even leaving a Yoel Romero fight unscathed as the victor is nearly unheard of. Set to take on Israel Adesanya for the middleweight championship at UFC 248 on March 7th in Las Vegas, the defending champion will have his hands full trying to keep Yoel from finally securing a UFC title.