Dana White Says UFC Looking At Yoel Romero As Israel Adesanya’s First Challenger

UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya won the gold by defeating Robert Whittaker via second round knockout in the main event of UFC 243.

When it comes to Adesanya’s first title defense, UFC President Dana White says that first title defense could come against the #3 ranked Yoel Romero.

“We’re looking at Yoel Romero. (Adesanya) wants that fight. He wants to fight Yoel Romero. Nobody wants to fight Yoel Romero. Nobody’s screaming, ‘I want to fight Yoel Romero.’ He is,” White said to Brett Okamoto of ESPN (via Adam Martin of BJPenn.com). 

Romero would be in an odd position of entering the bout while riding a two fight losing streak and he hasn’t won a contest in almost two years.

While White says that Adesanya versus Romero is likely, no date has been set for the potential title bout.

“Yeah (we have a date), but we’re not announcing it yet,” White said.

Outside of this March’s UFC 248 card, every announced UFC pay-per-view card in 2020 has a main event announced and/or reported at this time.