A couple of the best middleweights on the planet are set to battle at a long-awaited bout after this spring, and I will give my initial thoughts on the matchup in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Yoel Romero vs. Paulo Costa, UFC on ESPN 3
Top-ranked middleweights Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa will clash in the Primary event of UFC on ESPN 3, which is set for April 27 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. The bout was initially reported by Combate. It’ll be a five-round fight, it is probably the winner of the bout could be next in line for a crack in the UFC middleweight title currently held by Robert Whittaker, who fights Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 234 in early February. (Although we do need to keep Israel Adesanya in that conversation too ).
Romero (13-3) is 41-years older, but you would not know it. He’s in amazing physical condition and is fighting at an extremely large degree. The Cuban wrestling senstation is 9-2 overall in the UFC, with wins over the likes of Luke Rockhold, Chris Weidman, Ronaldo”Jacare” Souza, Lyoto Machida, Brad Tavares and Derek Brunson. Seven of the UFC victories have come by knockout, and 11 total of his wins have come by knockout. He’s just been stopped once in his entire career, by Rafael”Feijao” Cavalcante back in Strikeforce, and in the UFC he’s only lost twice, both razor-thin choices to Whittaker. In a lot of ways it is reasonable to think about Romero the second-best middleweight in the world behind only the Australian champion. However, with just two losses to Whittaker, Romero is at precisely the same spot as someone like Stephen”Wonderboy” Thompson in welterweight. With other contenders in the combination, Romero should keep busy and keep winning fights in order to possibly get a third name fight from the Whittaker vs. Gastelum winner.
Costa (12-0) is a perfect 4-0 at the UFC and all of his career victories have come by knockout or submission, such as brutal knockouts over Johny Hendricks and Uriah Hall in his last two bouts. The Brazilian was labeled the upcoming big thing by most fans and media, but so far he’s still very unproven against the upper echelon of the UFC middleweight division. At just 27, he’s correct in his prime and continues to demonstrate a better skill-set each time we see him inside the Octagon. No doubt he’s looked great against lesser opposition, and if he looks fantastic against Romero and gets the win he will be in an enviable position when it comes to the middleweight title taken pecking order.
This is a superb fight, and also the fact it is place for five rounds makes it better. As far as that I favor, I believe you have to label Romero as the favorite just based on everything he’s accomplished up to now in the Octagon. Not to mention the fact that when this fight was originally reserved for UFC 230, Romero was originally pegged as the betting favorite ahead of the line was taken down. Costa has definitely looked great lately, however, and he has a 14-year age advantage in this fight, but till we see him really beat a top guy it’s hard to say he should be favored over any of these. Regardless of who wins the struggle, this ought to be a fun matchup and it’s the perfect main event for the Hispanic crowd in Miami.
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