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“Soldier of God” Yoel Romero is no longer under contract with the UFC after seven years with the promotion.
Longtime Romero manager Malki Kawa confirmed the middleweight release to MMA Fighting on Friday night after an initial report from ESPN.com.
According to ESPN, Romero had three fights remaining on his contract. The 43-year-old Cuban is “ready to move on and resume his career, and we are already talking about other promotions as we speak,” Kawa said. It is not immediately clear what led to Romero’s release.
Considered one of the most enduring fighters in the Octagon, Romero made it to the UFC after a stint in the now-defunct Strikeforce which was acquired by the UFC in 2011. He quickly won. as one of the top contenders and has won eight consecutive fights. between 2013 and 2016, capped off by a flying knee kick from former champion Chris Weidman. This performance earned Romero both a Performance of the Night bonus and a chance against interim champion Robert Whittaker.
In an extremely competitive bout, Romero and Whittaker fought for five rounds before “The Reaper” was declared the winner by unanimous decision. Romero rebounded with a knockout victory from Luke Rockhold in another interim title fight – Whittaker was later promoted to undisputed champion – but was deemed ineligible for the title when he ran out of weight.
Romero still had another shot at the belt and at Whittaker, but he again came in heavy for a title fight and was not eligible to win gold. Whittaker still won the UFC 225 front page fight by split decision.
The scorecards haven’t been kind to Romero since, with decision losses to Paulo Costa and current champion Israel Adesanya in his second candidacy for the undisputed belt. Romero got the title shot when Costa was forced to undergo bicep surgery and couldn’t challenge Adesanya.
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