UFC-mästaren i mellanvikt Israel Adesanya och Yoel Romero kommer alltid vara oense om vem som bär skulden för det låga underhållningsvärdet i deras titelmacth.
Yoel Romero attackerar Israel Adesanyas insats vid deras titelmatch
UFC 248 i mars 2020 var organisationens sista event innan världen stängde ner på grund av pandemin. Vid galans huvudmatch ”fightades” Adesanya och Romero om mellanviktsbältet i en av sportens tråkigaste titelmatcher någonsin.
När han reflekterade över matchen mot lade Adesanya skulden på Romero för hur tråkig matchen var. Romero anser dock att det motsatta är sanningen. Kubanen sade följande i The MMA Hour:
The UFC was pampering him, was pampering ‘Izzy,’ and basically I guess what they wanted was for me to go running after him. No, I’m not going to do that. If he was intimidated and didn’t want to exchange punches with me, that’s on him, not on me. All I did was stand up in there wanting to fight like a man and exchange blows. He didn’t want to do that, that’s on him. But it could have been way more than it was.
Adesanya flydde undan under matchen
Ofta brukar händelselösa matcher kallas för stirrdueller på grund av hur få slag som utbyts. Det fanns dock tillfällen i den nämnda matchen där Romero såg lika förstelnad ut som en staty.
Till slut kom alla parter (fansen inkluderade) att gå förlorande ur matchen förutom Adesanya som vann via enhälligt domslut.
Romero säger dock att han anser han förstår taktiska matchplaner men han anser att Adesanya bara sprang ifrån honom:
Now don’t get me wrong, I do understand when someone wants to fight smart. If you want to get in and out, get a couple of kicks here, a couple punches there, pick your moment, that is absolutely fine. But that’s not what he did. What he did was whenever he felt like I was coming up to him, he literally just ran away.
So there is a big difference between being a savvy fighter, picking your spots and wanting to be very specific about when you might attack somebody, and running away. And that’s what he was doing. And I wasn’t about to just chase him all around the octagon. That would have been ridiculous. So if he had been willing to stand up in there and fight, that would have been one thing. If he had wanted to be a smart, strategic fighter, [that would have been] another thing. But that’s not what he did. He was just running all over the place.
