Manager confirms Yoel Romero plans to move to light heavyweight, wants title fight with Daniel Cormier

After missing weight for two consecutive middleweight fights — an interim title fight with Luke Rockhold and an undisputed title fight with Robert Whittaker — Yoel Romero is most likely headed up to the 205-pound light heavyweight division.

Romero’s manager Malki Kawa confirmed this plan on Monday’s episode of Ariel Helwani’s MMA show on ESPN. Apparently, the plan was originally for Romero to fight Swedish light heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson, but the pair’s scheduling didn’t line up. With that plan off the table, the new hope is for Romero to battle Daniel Cormier for light heavyweight gold.

“So we are talking to UFC about him moving up to light heavyweight,” Kawa said (transcribed by Nathan Zur for Sherdog). “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. 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.”

“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 a Yoel Romero and Daniel Cormier title fight since Daniel wants big fights, and I think that would be the biggest fight to make,” Kawa continued.

“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. 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.”

Does a Daniel Cormier vs. Yoel Romero light heavyweight title fight interest you?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/11/2018.