Israel Adesanya feels he proved Yoel Romero isn’t ‘made of steel’

Israel Adesanya believes that he proved Yoel Romero isn’t “made of steel” at UFC 248.

Adesanya, the UFC middleweight champion, defended his title against Romero in the card’s main event, winning a controversial and undeniably slow decision over the Cuban.

Ahead of this Adesanya vs. Romero fight, much was made of the latter’s durability. UFC President Dana White, for example, compared the long-time middleweight contender to a piece of concrete.

“I think the fascinating thing about when you talk about Yoel Romero, and losing these fights, is that when you talk to the guys he fought, let them tell you the story of how the fight played out,” White said ahead of the Adesanya vs. Romero fight. “Every time they hit him, it hurt them. They said it’s literally like fighting a piece of concrete, and nobody that’s ever fought him wants to fight him again. They don’t wanna fight him again. Those are the type of things that would make a guy who’s the champ say ‘I don’t need that s***’, right? He’s [Adesanya] opting to fight Yoel Romero. If you don’t like that, you’re not a fan of fighting and you probably shouldn’t watch this fight anyway.”

Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, who Adesanya dethroned to win the belt, also compared Romero to “steel.”

“This time, he felt like steel,” Whittaker told The Daily Telegraph after his second and most recent fight with Romero. “I was punching and kicking him but it wasn’t doing any damage. He was walking forward through everything. It was weird.

“Except for my face, all the damage on my body is from me hitting him.”

Despite the slow nature of his victory over Yoel Romero, Israel Adesanya feels he proved the Cuban isn’t made of steel.

On Sunday, Adesanya Tweeted an image of Romero’s badly battered leg — a product of his own leg kicks — and sarcastically refuted the notion that the Cuban is made of anything but flesh and bones.

“rOmERo iZ MadE oF STelL!” https://t.co/hunYSHwmWk

— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) March 8, 2020

“rOmERo iZ MadE oF STelL!.”

Adesanya also reminded that he took almost no damage in this fight—unlike his foe.

https://twitter.com/stylebender/status/1236901458827591681

“Unscathed.”

What do you think of these post-fight remarks from Israel Adesanya?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 3/9/2020.