The UFC 248 main event fight did not live up to expectations and the challenger, Yoel Romero, believes Israel Adesanya’s lackluster performance was to blame for the meltdown.
Preceded by a fight for the ages in the co-main event, Romero and Adesanya delivered a dull headlining bout in what many fans considered as one of the worst title fights in history.
The middleweight title fight went the distance and all cageside judges scored it in favour of the defending champion for a unanimous decision win – Adesanya’s eighth straight victory in the UFC.
The Cuban hulk was quick to question the outcome and declared that his victory was the appreciation of the crowd.
“Not here (points at cage), here (points to ear, then crowd), that’s my victory,” he told Joe Rogan (via MMA Fighting).
“That’s my victory. I have one question for everybody here. I have big respect for everybody, for all athletes.”
“But my question is, ‘This is the champion for UFC that we and all of you want?’ No, we want to fight. We wanted a fight that’s wild, that’s what we want to see here.”
Not A Champion
For Romero, Adesanya’s performance was not a testament of a real champion, saying the middleweight king just run in the cage for 25 minutes like a gladiator.
“He’s running and running and running—Like the people in Rome, like the gladiators. That’s what the people want to see here,” he continued.
“He running and running and running. That’s not a big champion. The big champion stays here in the middle in the fight, like a real champion.”
“That’s what I wanted to do was stand there and trade with him to give these fans a fight.”
Following the defeat, the ‘Solider of God’ extended his losing skid to three fights, with his most recent Octagon appearance could be his last shot at a UFC gold.
“The people pay pay-per-view for a real fight. Not for this. The fighters need to respect that people pay. The people pay because the people want to see the good fight, not for this.”
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Fighting A Ghost
To sum it up, the former Olympic gold medalist compared his experience at UFC 248 to fighting a ghost, which he regrets as he couldn’t give the fans a great show.
“You need to have respect for the people. The people work a lot and pay pay-per-view for what? For fight. No running. You want to see running, go to see Usain Bolt.”
“It’s impossible to fight against a ghost. I don’t know how anybody could expect me to fight against a ghost.”
“I’m going to start training for track or cross-country because obviously, he’s a cross-country and a track star so I need to catch up to his sport.”
“The only thing I feel is that I’m ashamed that I couldn’t give the fans a fight or a war that everybody wanted.”
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(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ UFC)