Israel Adesanya blasts Yoel Romero for his approach in 'last title shot' at UFC 248
Israel Adesanya received criticism for the way he fought at UFC 248 against Yoel Romero. It was his first title defense and since Paulo Costa wasn't available due to injury, the Champion demanded that he face Romero instead due to his reputation of being the most 'dangerous' man in the Middleweight Division.
Unfortunately, the fight didn't pan out the way fans had hoped and Adesanya played it very carefully, getting a unanimous decision victory over the Cuban contender. After the fight, Romero asked the crowd if they wanted to see Adesanya as Champion when he fought the way he did, claiming that he knows people pay their hard-earned money to watch them fight.
Adesanya appeared on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show (H/T BJPENN.com) a day after UFC 248 and slammed Romero for how he acted:
“I love fighting, this is what I love to do. So after the fight, I was frustrated, I was like, ‘You’re going to act like that?’ Me and him know you can act all you want, you can try to get the crowd on the side all you want bro. Me and him know, me and him know who pushed that fight, me and him know who was scoring in that fight. So I mean, he has to live with this for the rest of his life.”
He continued to blast his opponent, saying that he was 'gifted' a title shot by him and that he messed up in his last fight:
“He had one more shot at this belt. He didn’t even deserve to be in there with me. He had no right to be in there with me. But I gave him the shot because I thought, ‘Ok, this is the guy that everyone’s scared of, everyone doesn’t want to fight, let me see what this hype is about.’ So I called him out, I gave him the shot after going on a three-fight losing streak, it was a gift from me. So the fact that he approached the fight like that, it will be his last title shot. It’s something he’s going to have to live with for the rest of his life.
Dana White admitted in the post-fight press conference that they should have waited for Costa rather than giving Romero the fight. He also revealed that the UFC matchmakers were against the fight since it simply didn't make sense (as Romero was 1-3 heading into the title fight).
White also defended Adesanya and blamed Romero for the way he fought in what seems to be his last title shot.