The UFC has reserved a potential middleweight title eliminator for an upcoming spring card down south, and I will give my thoughts on this thrilling new battle in the present MMA odds and ends.
Yoel Romero vs. Ronaldo»Jacare» Souza two, UFC on ESPN 3
We all believed the most important event of UFC on ESPN 3 was going to become a five-round middleweight fight between Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa. There’s been a change of plans. Based on ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Costa has been scraped in the card and now Romero will rematch rival Ronaldo»Jacare» Souza in a rematch. UFC on ESPN 3 takes place April 27 in BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, and Romero vs. Souza 2 is defined as the newest five-round principal event.
It was possibly slightly surprising to see the UFC book this rematch at this point of time, together with Romero coming off of a split decision loss to Robert Whittaker in his final fight and Souza that a KO win over Chris Weidman, but looking at the condition of the middleweight division more closely the fight is logical. With Kelvin Gastelum combating Israel Adesanya at UFC 236 for its interim middleweight title, along with the champ Whittaker sitting on the sidelines with injuries, the branch continues to move along and await no one. Both fighters needed a matchup to keep busy in among the sport’s most active branches, and with no additional top-ranked contenders accessible to fight in April, this rematch between Romero and Souza was the way to go for the UFC.
The first time Romero and Souza fought was back in UFC 194 at December 2015 (the same night Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo), with Romero edging out a narrow split decision. Ever since that time, Romero has gone 2-2 at the Octagon to Whittaker bookmarked by KO wins over Luke Rockhold and the aforementioned Weidman. Souza, meanwhile, has gone 4-2 since with finishes over Weidman, Derek Brunson, Vitor Belfort and Tim Boetsch and losses to Whittaker and Gastelum. Despite both Romero and Souza being 41 and 39, respectively, they stay at the peak of the middleweight division, and the winner of this bout ought to be close to a title shot.
Romero (13-3) is 9-2 overall from the UFC and has emerged as one of the most devastating knockout artists from the sport now, and of course one of the most accomplished wrestlers. Souza (26-6, 1 NC) is 8-3 in the UFC and is one of the most well-rounded fighters at the division, and of course one of the best MMA fighters ever to have not fought for a UFC name.
As for the odds for this rematch, I am anticipating something near a Pick Celtics using a little lean towards Romero because he was training for this particular card and because he won the first fight. Nevertheless, the fight was only three rounds, and these two rounds could prove to be the gap in the rematch now around. It’s going to be a fight irrespective of who receives their hand raised.
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