Yoel Romero will not be fighting for a title at UFC 221 — though Luke Rockhold will be.
The beleaguered UFC 221 PPV took another hit late Friday, when Yoel Romero missed weight on his second trip to the scales. The official weigh-ins, coming in roughly twenty-four hours prior to the event, saw a couple of fighters come in heavy. Flyweight Jussier Formiga was just over the 126lb max for his fight against Ben Nguyen, and while dropping the towel didn’t get him to where he needed to be, he was given two hours to make weight, which he did. Then came headliner Yoel Romero, and calamity.
Romero, who had never missed weight in his career, came in well over the 185lb limit for his interim title fight against Luke Rockhold. At 188.3lbs, he was likewise given the two-hour allowance to make weight. After the initial attempt, Romero and Rockhold faced off and exchanged words — with a visibly annoyed Rockhold later saying to UFC on FOX’s Megan Olivi that Romero needed to “be professional,” and that his opponent didn’t “have the cleanest track record.”
Here's our interview with @LukeRockhold, and he's clearly feeling some type of way about @YoelRomeroMMA missing weight… #UFC221 https://t.co/G5aQ44nScp
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) February 10, 2018
However, despite the two hour allotment to get his weight down, Romero was unable to hit the mark. Ultimately, he was only able to shave off about a pound. That means only Luke Rockhold will be eligible to win the interim middleweight title come Saturday night’s main event.
UFC 221 goes down Saturday (Sunday locally), live from the Perth Arena in Perth, Australia.
