Who is Yoel Romero's next opponent Melvin Manhoef?
MMA fighter Yoel Romero's next fight has been announced and will take place on the Bellator Paris card on May 6. 'Soldier of God' will take on MMA veteran Melvin Manhoef in a light heavyweight bout.
The bout will serve as the co-main event for that night. The card will be headlined by a title fight between Cheick Congo and Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader.
Yoel Romero x Melvin Manhoef at light heavyweight has been added to the Bellator Paris card on May 6, per the promotion.
It will serve as the co-main for the Bader x Kongo 2 title fight.
Melvin Manhoef is a 45-year-old Surinamese-Dutch MMA fighter who was born in Paramaribo, Suriname. At the age of three, Manhoef, along with his family, moved to the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Also known as 'No Mercy', Manhoef has competed in various combat organizations like Strikeforce, ONE Championship, KSW, DREAM and K-1.
The 45-year-old is currently ranked 10th in the Bellator light heavyweight rankings.
Manhoef has competed in 50 professional MMA fights and has an MMA record of 32-15-1(2). One impressive thing to note here is note that 29 out of Manhoef's 32 victories have come via knockout.
During his long career, 'No Mercy' has competed against several prominent fighters like Mark Hunt, Corey Anderson, Rafael Carvalho, Joe Schilling, Tim Kennedy, Robbie Lawler, Gegard Mousasi and Kazushi Sakuraba.
Apart from mixed martial arts, the 45-year-old also had an extensive career as a kickboxer. 'No Mercy' competed in 52 kickboxing matches and won 38 of them.
Yoel Romero's impressive stint in the UFC
During his time in the UFC, Yoel Romero was considered one of the scariest fighters in the middleweight division.
'Soldier of God' started his career in the multi-billion dollar promotion with a spectacular knockout of Clifford Starks in April 2013. Romero won his first eight UFC fights in a row which included knockout victories over fighters like Derek Brunson, Tim Kennedy, Chris Weidman, Lyoto Machida and Ronaldo Souza.
With this amazing run, Yoel Romero landed himself an interim title shot against Robert Whittaker at UFC 213. Unfortunately, the 44-year-old came up short on fight night and lost the contest via unanimous decision.
Romero then bounced back with a highlight-reel worthy knockout of former UFC champion Luke Rockhold at UFC 221. This earned him another shot at the title against 'The Reaper' at UFC 225.
Ahead of the title fight, 'Soldier of God' missed weight and became ineligible to win the title. He then went on to lose the fight via split decision. Romero then lost his next two fights against Paulo Costa and Israel Adesanya and before parting ways with the UFC.