Tidigare i år ställdes den kubanske mellanviktaren Yoel Romero mot mästaren Israel Adesanya på UFC 248. Mötet slutade med Adesanya som segrare via ett enhälligt domslut och denne fick motta en del kritik för att mötet ansågs händelsefattigt. Nu berättar Romeros coach och den tidigare fightern, Mike Brown, att Romero är en av de bästa atleterna han tränat och att han tror Romero kommer att få en till titelchans i framtiden.
Den bästa atlet han någonsin sett
I en intervju med MMA Junkie berättade Brown att Romero är den bästa atlet han någonsin sett och att han absolut ser Romero komma tillbaka till en titelmatch. Detta trots att Romero i nuläget är i 40-års åldern.
He’s the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen, even at this age. What he can do with his body is incredible, I’ve never seen anything like it: speed, reaction time, agility. I mean, he’s in his 40s and his reaction time is incredible, the speed is incredible, his coordination is incredible. The more I see guys like him, the more I realize what a terrible athlete I am. I can’t imagine what he was like when he was 30 or 25. It must have been unbelievable. I know he’s a world champion in wrestling and this is so difficult, wrestling is so deep and so many people are competing for the same title, it’s very competitive. He got a very late start in MMA and he’s done some amazing things. You have to worry about time catches up to everybody, but right now – how he looks in the gym and what he can do – I mean, I definitely see him getting back to the title.
Osäker om han klarar 10 år till
Redan innan mötet med Adesanya sa Romero att han har planer på att fortsätta gå matcher inom MMA i 10 år till, Brown säger att han är osäker på om det är möjligt men han nämner också att han aldrig sett någon prestera så bra som Romero i en så hög ålder.
I don’t know about that, but I mean I can’t believe he looks like de does right now. You don’t know when things are going to change, but right now, he can beat anybody in the world. On any night he’s as good as anybody. He was right there that night. That night, when it came down to the scorecards – even though it was a boring fight, people didn’t like it – but in my head I thought he had done enough in those rounds to win. Watching it live, the leg kicks didn’t feel like enough. To me, it felt like Adesanya was on the run more or maybe in danger of getting finished more. I mean you can’t always see the angles if the punches are landing or not, but Yoel would attack and Adesanya was stumbling around, maybe the punches were missing, but it’s hard to tell sometimes. But from the outside I thought he had won. But again I knew they were close again, so I didn’t know how the judges had scored it, but if I were scoring it I’d say he had won three of those rounds, but again, I knew they were close enough to argue either way.
Brown avslutar med att han inte gillar argumentationen att en utmanare i en titelmatch behöver göra mer än mästaren för att vinna, han anser istället att en titelmatch bör bedömas med en neutral syn.
I feel like people think that when you’re the challenger you have to do this, you have to do that, but you’re just in a fight. You’re reacting to moment-to-moment action as it comes to you. You’re not thinking, ‘I’m the challenger, I need to get him,’ you’re just solving the puzzle that’s in front of you, I’ve never liked that mentality. You have to score the round. You can’t say, ‘You have to beat the champion convincingly,’ no, you have to beat him, thats it – especially these world-class athletes. It’s not easy to finish these guys, to hurt these guys.
Sist vi såg Romero i oktagonen var under mötet mot Adesanya på UFC 248 som ägde rum den 7:e mars i Las Vegas, USA.
