Yoel Romero
Olympic Result: Silver, 2000, 4th place 2004
See you soon, boy.
Yoel Romero is one of MMA’s more colorful characters, and his run in the UFC was short but devastating. An ageless wonder who is now 47, back in February, Romero defeated fellow former UFC title challenger Thiago Santos at the PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions card in Saudi Arabia.
Having fought for gold in both Bellator and the UFC, Romero might be one of the better fighters to have never claimed a major title. But he has devastating wins over Derek Brunson, Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold, Melvin Manhoef, and others, and has shared the cage with Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker, and Vadim Nemkov.
Prior to his relatively late jump to MMA, Romero represented his native Cuba at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia winning a silver medal in freestyle wrestling. He returned to the Olympics in 2004, finishing in 4th place in the 85kg division. Romero actually carried on wrestling for a few more years, but his appearances became more and more infrequent, and he wound up suspended by the Cuban Wrestling Federation for allegedly throwing a match at the 2005 World Championships, missing all of 2006 as a result.
After defecting to Germany, where he briefly continued his wrestling career, Romero switched over the MMA. He made his pro debut in 2009, landed in Strikeforce in 2011, and joined the UFC when Strikeforce was acquired by its larger rival, debuting in the octagon in 2013. Following a 2016 positive drug test due to a contaminated supplement, Romero was awarded over $27 million USD in damages following a lawsuit, though that amount was later reduced to approximately 12.5 million.
