Who did Robert Whittaker beat for the UFC interim middleweight championship?
Robert Whittaker secured the UFC interim middleweight title by outpointing Yoel Romero in their first meeting in 2017.
In front of over 12,000 fans, Robert Whittaker beat Yoel Romero in a five-round war to claim the interim middleweight belt at UFC 213. Despite trailing on the scorecards after the first two rounds, Whittaker relied on his speed and versatile striking. He managed to convince all three judges and was handed a unanimous decision victory.
WHAT. A. FIGHT.
#UFC213 https://t.co/iB2taxSHST
After the fight, Whittaker and Romero moved on and took separate paths. 'The Reaper' should have fought for the undisputed crown. However, the fight never happened as Georges St-Pierre vacated the middleweight title and Whittaker was promoted to champion.
Romero, on the other hand, returned to his winning ways. He knocked out former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in less than three rounds and proved to be worthy of another title shot.
Almost a year after they first met, Whittaker and Romero faced each other again at UFC 225. As expected, the pair fought another close fight but 'The Reaper' ended up getting the better of the Cuban once again. Whittaker scored a a split decision win over Romero to cement his name as the UFC middleweight champion.
Watch Whittaker and Romero speak about their UFC 225 battle below:
Robert Whittaker fought the best Yoel Romero
Some believe that Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero 2 was one of the greatest bouts to have taken place in the octagon. What unraveled soon after was a surprise as 'The Soldier of God' went on a skid.
Coming off back-to-back title fight defeats, Romero continued his winless streak and lost two important fights in a row. After a unanimous decision loss to Paulo Costa, Romero blew another title shot when he succumbed to Israel Adesanya at UFC 248.
"I f---ed his leg up ... I did what I had to do to win that fight."
Israel Adesanya laid out the strategy that helped him win at #UFC248. https://t.co/cI2IZfIRmw
Ahead of his fight against Kelvin Gastelum last year, Whittaker reflected on his two tough battles with Romero. According to the former champion, he fought the best version of Romero for "10 rounds" and he takes pride in it.
“I feel that Yoel gave me his best in 10 rounds and couldn’t put me away. I went 10 rounds with a monster. No one else has," Whittaker said in the UFC 234 presser.
Watch Whittaker talk about Romero below:
Since losing to Whittaker the second time, Romero was never the same fighter. In fact, UFC president Dana White even admitted they shouldn't have handed him a crack at Adesanya in the first place. In December 2020, Romero cut his ties with the UFC and joined Bellator.