The Ultimate Fighting Championship is now working on a potential middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero.
The middleweight stars have been linked on a future collision after Adesanya said he wants to fight Romero for his first official title-defence.
The Kiwi-Nigerian fighter is coming off a sensational win against Robert Whittaker to unify the middleweight titles while Romero has been winless in his last two UFC outings.
UFC president Dana White previously said the Cuban powerhouse has to score a win first before the promotion books him against Adesanya as skidding fighters do not normally earn title shots.
But in a recent interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, White confirmed that UFC has now a target date for the Adesanya vs Romero fight.
“We’re looking at Yoel Romero. (Adesanya) wants that fight. He wants to fight Yoel Romero. Nobody wants to fight Yoel Romero. Nobody’s screaming, ‘I want to fight Yoel Romero.’ He is.”
“Yeah (we have a date), but we’re not announcing it yet.”
Charitable Guy
In an episode of ESPN’s Now or Never last November, Adesanya has called himself a ‘charitable guy’ for wanting to give Romero a shot at a UFC gold despite his recent records.
“Me, I asked for the ‘Boogeyman’ of the division, the guy no one wants to fight, Yoel Romero. I wanted him,” Adesanya declared.
“But, like I said, I’m a charitable guy. I mean he doesn’t deserve a shot at the champ after coming off his last few fights losing.”
“He’s a guy that, I don’t really care about records, if he’s the guy that people thinks going to beat me, if he’s the people’s champ, then alright, let’s see what you got.”
The Real Champ
Meanwhile, the Cuban powerhouse said this fight with Adesanya, if the UFC pursues it, will determine the real king of the 180-pound class.
“I’m staying ready for the fight because I’m still hungry,” he told Ariel Helwani, per MMA Fighting.
“I want this fight to happen because many people talk, ‘Who is the true [champion]? Who is the real champion of middleweight?’”
“And the people know who it is because everybody has seen what happened the last three fights before. Now Israel has the belt, the people want to see who is the real champion.”
“The people see that I am losing three fight. Yes, I’m losing three fight,” Romero said of his recent string of defeats.
“But when you ask them, inside their soul, ‘Did Yoel Romero lose?’ Yoel Romero did not lose. Yoel Romero is still the winner.”
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero)