I made a blog entry a few days ago talking about how Yoel Romero had been released / quit UFC despite the fact that he still has a few fights left in his contract. I also talked a bit about how I feel that Romero is one of the boring-est fighters in all of MMA with most of his victories and defeats coming from really slow-paced matches that went to a decision. Most of which Romero has been losing lately. Dana White seems to agree with me on this as he is a massive critic of Yoel's style and says nasty things about the man in post-fight interviews. White is not one to hold back when it comes to criticizing his promotion's fighters.
When Yoel was released there was a lot of buzz about how the 43 year old Cuban, who is in absolutely fantastic shape muscularly speaking, would have his "pick of the bunch" as far as which promotion he would be moving to. Everyone always eyes up Bellator when it comes to people that have been released by UFC as it seem to be the natural path of aging "superstars" from UFC. However, I was actually hoping that Bellator would pass on this one because Romero is one of those guys that when he is on a card I will find something else to do during his fight because they tend to be god-awful.
This is exactly what is happening right now.
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Romero's agent went "fishing for contracts" and rumors quickly started to spread that most promotions were immediately passing on even making an offer. The agent started to get defensive and was even Tweeting out that the internet rumors were all lies and that there was a great interest in his client. I guess that Scott Coker (Bellator's President) took the accusation personally because he made a press release that definitely confirms that Yoel will NOT be moving to Bellator.
“We got a call from (his) agent and originally we just passed,” Coker said. “If you look at our roster and how many fighters we have on this roster and how many fights we’re going to do, there are only so many TV slots. We have kind of gotten away from signing the OGs we used to sign back in the day
I am very happy to see this not just because I think Romero is an extremely boring fighter and waaaaay to pontifical once he gets his hands on a mic, but also because Bellator should really have its own thing going on and not rely on UFC's throwaways for their roster. They are, and are likely always going to be in a distant 2nd place to UFC and of course they always run the risk of UFC poaching their best talent since I think it is pretty easy to assume that nearly every Bellator fighter would probably rather be fighting at the top-tier and that is exactly what UFC is.
Sadly for Romero, it isn't just Bellator that declined to make an offer but also far distant promotions such as PFL (Professional Fighters League) also passed on adding the "Soldier of God" to their roster.
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So will someone else pick up Yoel? I honestly don't care but maybe Pride would throw him a bone. I do not watch Pride and neither do most other MMA fans so if he goes there it would be a very "meh" moment for me. Being outright rejected by Bellator and then having your agent lie about it doesn't say much about his professionalism though and if anyone out there actually does want him I would be willing to bet that they can get him very very cheap because of this.
Perhaps he could start some sort of workout videos or something and then he could also get as preachy as he wants during those. He does have an exceptional physique for someone his age after all. No matter what his future ends up being, I would be willing to bet that we don't end up hearing about him anymore and after the way he performed in the UFC for years, this is perfectly ok with me.