UFC middleweight contender Yoel Romero lost his shot at competing for the UFC middleweight title on Saturday, June 9, when he missed weight for his main event match up at UFC 225. The fighter initially missed weight by an entire pound.
The Illinois State Athletic Commission then permitted the fighter another two hours to cut weight. However, Romero was unexpectedly informed by the commission to weigh in an hour into the weigh cut.
Ultimately, Romero missed weight by 0.2 pounds. In a non-title fight, Romero faced off against reigning champion Robert Whittaker and suffered a split decision loss.
Speaking on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, Romero’s manager Abe Kawa revealed that they planned on Yoel Romero to miss weight the first time, in order to take advantage of the two extra hours they were expected to be allotted.
“The whole plan for this was to be on weight by 11 am. That was the plan. Once 5 O’clock in the morning came around I was texted by like three different people, and these are UFC officials, telling me ‘Hey, as long as he’s within three pounds by 11 am, he’ll get an extra two hours.’
“So, I get with George Lockhart and say “Hey, if for whatever reason we need to do, let’s use those extra two hours. Why would we kill our guy trying to get him down that bad, that fast? If we can stretch it out, let’s stretch it out.
“He goes, ‘Oh, brilliant idea. Let’s do it.’ The whole plan was to use those two hours.”
Yoel Romero's managers explain what happened between Romero and the Illinois State Athletic Commission at the UFC 225 weigh-ins. Watch #TheMMAHour live: https://t.co/11sYrEm5Ug pic.twitter.com/MdmMF69qY6
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) June 11, 2018
