Dana White Blames Yoel Romero for Forgettable UFC 248 Headliner

It takes two to tango, but neither Israel Adesanya nor Yoel Romero appeared to be very interested in engaging with one another in Saturday’s UFC 248 headliner.

Ultimately, Adesanya rode a leg-kick heavy attack to a forgettable unanimous decision triumph over “The Soldier of God” at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Adesanya saw his star dull a little bit in the victory, but UFC president Dana White believes Romero was primarily to blame for what transpired in the middleweight championship bout.

Romero received the title shot at Adesanya’s request despite being on a two-fight losing streak as true top contender Paulo Henrique Costa recovered from a torn bicep. White wanted to see the soon to be 43-year-old Romero display more urgency in what could very well turn out to be his last championship opportunity.

“I’m shocked,” White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Romero knew this was his last opportunity at a world championship. I thought he was gonna come out like a bat out of hell, put tons of pressure on him, shoot takedowns, try to knock him out. He did literally none of that. If you’re Adesanya, he fought the smart fight. You stay on the outside, he chopped that leg apart, and he picked his punches and did what he did. Romero did a lot of moving around and acting like he was trying to fight but he never really did.

“Hindsight is 20/20. We probably shouldn’t have done that fight and we should have waited for Costa. Oh well, we did it.”

Perhaps the most perplexing display from Romero come at the outset of the fight, when the Cuban elected to stand flat-footed and motionless in the Octagon. It was a bizarre scene, to say the least. Adesanya took a cautious approach against his powerful foe, and while it wasn’t a crowd pleaser, White gave credit to “The Last Stylebender” for doing what he needed to do to achieve victory.

“This was a terrible fight,” White said. “If you look at the UFC as a whole for as long as we’ve been doing it, you can literally put in one hand s---y fights that we’ve done. It takes two to fight. If somebody goes out there and doesn’t want to engage and doesn’t want to fight, and you’re a guy like Adesanya, he’s got so much more on the line. This is the way that the guy’s acting. He’s gonna stay back and he’s gonna pick him apart the way that he did. That leg was destroyed. . . He’s not gonna have a pep in his step tonight. That leg is hurting.

“Adesanya did what he had to do in my opinion. Why run in there and go crazy against a guy that dangerous when that guy is not fighting at all?”

The Olympic silver medalist has lost four of his last five UFC appearances – and any chance to climb back to the top of the division seems like a long shot, at best.

“A path back to the title after that performance? You’re crazy even asking that question right now,” White said. “He looked terrible tonight. He looked terrible. He literally gave up an opportunity tonight. Maybe he comes back in his next fight and looks like Yoel Romero. But if he doesn’t, I wouldn’t expect him to fight another 10 years looking like that.”