Bellator 280: Yoel Romero Wants Mousasi at 185, Not 205

Melvin Manhoef or Alex Polizzi, it doesn’t seem to matter to Bellator 280’s Yoel Romero. He went from one to the other last week, with Polizzi stepping in for an injured Manhoeff in Paris this Friday.

“They’re both same stature, and I planned on wrestling the entire time,” Romero told Cageside Press during Wednesday’s Bellator 280 media day. Aside from that, and a difference in skin tone, Romero doesn’t really see much difference between them, he said.

Wrestling might be the key word there. A former Olympian who represented Cuba at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, winning a silver medal, Romero (13-6) admitted that he’d planned to focus on wrestling original opponent Melvin Manhoef.

“Alex has good and decent basic wrestling, he’s had decent results with it,” Romero noted.
“Luckily our plan this whole camp was to wrestle against Manhoef.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that he agrees with critics who feel he hasn’t used his wrestling enough. “This is MMA. I’m going to use my wrestling whenever it’s needed, but I’m going to use all my attributes that I’ve learned through all these years of training.”

The obvious storyline going into Friday night, when it comes to Romero, is his four-fight losing streak. “The Soldier of God” hasn’t picked up a win since 2018, when he defeated former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. “For me, every fight is equally important. It’s just adding one more victory to my career,” he said, asked about the importance of simply getting a win on Friday.

So he’s not thinking about losing streaks, or even rankings, although Polizzi is a ranked opponent. In fact, Polizzi is ranked higher than the man he’s replacing this Friday, Melvin Manhoef. “Right now I’m not thinking about rankings, I haven’t thought about rankings. I needed someone in there, and I’m glad they got a replacement,” said Romero. “I wanted to show my preparation, how well I prepared, and my hand’s going to be raised.”

There’s always plenty of fantasy matchmaking surrounding Romero, and the fight arguably discussed the most is one with Gegard Mousasi. Romero might be interested, but there’s a catch.

“At this moment, it doesn’t interest me very much. I would love to face him at 185.” That’s nothing personal against Mousasi, he added. It’s more about what he has. Reading between the lines, that’s the belt. “If he jumps to 205, he’s not going to have what I desire.”

Yoel Romero faces Alex Polizzi at Bellator 280 in Paris, France this Friday, May 6, 2022. Check out Romero’s full media day appearance above. More coverage can be found below.