Yoel Romero explains UFC on ESPN call out of Anderson Silva (and it’s all about levels)

Longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight contender, Yoel Romero, has been teasing a move to the light heavyweight division, but doesn’t appear to be in any big hurry to say goodbye to the 185-pound weight class.

That’s because “Soldier of God” still wants to understand what level he’s at, which by his reasoning, can be accomplished with a UFC on ESPN+ showdown opposite former middleweight champion, Anderson Silva.

“I want to fight with him,” Romero told Ariel Helwani MMA Show. “It’s not personal, between me and Anderson, it’s for me, because Anderson is the best of all time in MMA. I have big respect for him. If you stay in the middleweight division and you don’t fight with the top 10 people, you won’t understand what exactly is your level. If you really want to know what is your level, you have to fight with Anderson Silva.”

Romero is on the hunt for a new opponent after Paulo Costa was felled by injury. I guess the fact that “Soldier of God” is 41 makes a call out of the 43 year-old “Spider” a bit more palatable, though I think the Brazilian might have other ideas.

The 13-3 Romero has only lost to reigning middleweight titleholder, Robert Whittaker, under the UFC banner and already holds knockout wins over former champions Luke Rockhold, Chris Weidman, and Lyoto Machida.

Your move, “Spider” man.