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UFC 185-Pound King Robert Whittaker Questioning Yoel Romero’s Mindset Ahead of UFC 225



Newly appointed Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight king Robert Whittaker has questioned Yoel Romero’s motivations ahead of their much anticipated rematch after comments the Cuban made around retirement and the fact he didn’t make weight in his last fight against Luke Rockhold.

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Whittaker fought Romero back in July last year at UFC 213 for the interim title. The Aussie was successful that night, winning via unanimous decision. Georges St. Pierre then beat champion Michael Bisping, although later relinquished the title. After that, the UFC crowned Whittaker as the undisputed champion.

Whittaker was scheduled to defend his belt for the first time in Perth, Australia, at UFC 221 against Rockhold, but was forced to pull out due to a serious infection. Romero stepped in on short notice to fight Rockhold for the interim title. However, Romero missed weight and was unable to claim the interim belt. To muddy the waters further, Romero knocked Rockhold out and earned the No. 1 contender spot.

Whittaker talked with MMA Fighting recently and is questioning where Romero’s head is at this point in his career as he’s openly discussed retirement plans.

“Just sounds to me that he’s quit,” Whittaker told Submission Radio (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “I don’t think you can go into a fight with the thoughts of retirement beforehand. I think, when the time comes for me to retire personally -- and this is just a personal opinion, he’s neither right nor wrong -- but in my opinion, when I feel, as soon as I feel that I’ve reached the end of my road and I’ve had enough of fighting, that’s it, I’m done. I’m calling UFC next day and telling my coaches I’m done. Because you can’t go into a fight knowing you’re going to hang up the boots so to speak after it.”

“Nah, no way. Like, why would you?” Whittaker said, when asked if he would have fought Romero under the same circumstances. “I don’t understand anyone who takes fights when their opponent doesn’t make weight. It’s like, if you rock up at 87 kilos, which is what Romero did -- It was like 86 kilos or something like that -- then why don’t I rock up at 95? What’s the difference?”

UFC 225 will take place on June 9 at the United Center in Chicago. Whittaker believes Romero won’t bring anything new to the table but feels with his own injuries behind him, he will be even more dangerous this time.

“I think it will be the exact same fight,” Whittaker said. “Yoel can’t fight me any other way. The only thing that will be different is that I’ll be better. Doing my MCL four weeks before the fight obviously affected me, affected my training and affected my cardio. So yeah, I’m gonna be fitter and I’m not gonna have a bum knee. I’m gonna have, like you said, I felt him out, so I’m gonna work on certain things that I know is going to stump him.

“I don’t think he’s at a point where he can make drastic changes. I don’t think he can change anything that will really make an impact for this next fight. But that’s all my speculation, so who knows?”
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