Yoel Romero moves up to light heavyweight, manager wants Daniel Cormier UFC title fight

After Yoel Romero suffered a second defeat in a Middleweight title fight against division champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 225 a few weeks ago, talks of “Soldier of God” moving up to the Light Heavyweight division surfaced. That’s because Romero missed weight for his 185-pound bout, the second time he did so in as many championship appearances.

Now, Romero’s manager Malki Kawa has confirmed that the ex-title contender will indeed pack on the pounds to move up to 205 pounds, and revealed he was originally offered the Alexander Gustafsson fight for UFC 227 on Aug. 4, 2018 before it was awarded to Volkan Oezdemir.

“So we are talking to UFC about him moving up to light heavyweight. And I think what we’re going to propose to them, well to be honest they offered us the Gustafsson fight and we accepted it,” revealed Malki on Ariel Helani’s MMA Show. “But Gustafsson needed to fight in August and Yoel wanted to fight later because he has to have surgery, he broke his orbital. So there are talks for him to fight at light heavyweight,” he continued.

With no top contender to tango with at the moment, Kawa took his shot, saying he wants to propose to UFC to have Romero debut at light heavyweight against current division champion Daniel Cormier, who now holds the Heavyweight strap, as well.

“So I was looking at his record and looking at some of the people he’s beat, and I don’t know what the fans will think about Yoel Romero and Daniel Cormier title fight since Daniel wants big fights and I think that would be the biggest fight to make,” proclaimed Malki.

Calling him the best fighter in UFC to not have a title, Romero sports a highly-impressive resume, including knockout wins over former UFC champions Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold and Lyoto Machida. That, according to Malki, should be good enough for UFC to at least consider the proposal.

“When I look at this, and I don’t know how UFC would feel but Yoel Romero has beaten on his record five champions. Three UFC and two Strikeforce champions. He’s a monster in the Octagon,” he said.

“His fights with Robert Whittaker were razor thin and some people thought he won the second fight and he’s knocked out UFC champions. He is one of the best fighters in the UFC without a belt. He doesn’t have a fight and Cormier wants to fight somebody, maybe they will let us take that fight.”

While “DC” did says he wants to defend his 205-pound title before ending his career with a heavyweight championship showdown against Brock Lesnar, he has his eyes on former champion Mauricio Rua. Of course, “Shogun” has to get through Anthony Smith at UFC Fight Night 134 on July 22 before he’s even considered.

If not, then Romero is more than willing to step in and keep Cormier busy until Lesnar gets the green light from USADA.