Top-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight contenders, Ronaldo Souza (No. 2) and Yoel Romero (No. 3), will collide at the UFC 194 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which is scheduled for this Saturday night (Dec. 12, 2015) inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The big question heading into this weekend's bangfest is what happens when an Olympic medalist in wrestling decides to shoot on a decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, though I gather from Romero's conversation with The Underground that he's not overly concerned with his opponent's ground game.
His words:
"I think it's going to be a complete mixed martial arts (MMA) fight. It's going to go down in all positions, in all styles. We're going to fight in jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and we are going to fight in kickboxing and muay thai. It's going to be in the cage and it will be in all areas. That's how I see it. I am not worried about nothing, the distress of a man comes from someone; that someone is God and I have faith in God, so I don't worry about the style of a fighter. He is a great jiu-jitsu fighter, but this is mixed martial arts. And that is totally different. His jiu-jitsu does not worry me at all."
Alfred E. Neuman would be proud.
Souza is currently in the midst of an eight-fight win streak and has not lost in UFC to date (5-0). Romero, meanwhile, is also perfect inside the Octagon (6-0), most recently crushing Lyoto Machida by way of brutal elbows at UFC Fight Night 70 back in June.
Any chance this fight (results here) plays out entirely on the feet?