How deep is Saturday’s UFC 225 card at the United Center in Chicago?
A former light-heavyweight winner (Rashad Evans), a former title challenger and current No. 1 flyweight competition (Joseph Benavidez) plus a sure-to-be exciting lightweight scrap between hometown underdog Clay Guida and Charles’Do Bronx’ Oliveira are buried on the FightPass prelims.
There were supposed to be two name conflicts, including the main event between middleweight champ Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero. But, Romero missed weight by only 0.2 pounds when he tipped the scales at 185.2 lbs.
For title fights, the allowance is not granted. The first weigh-in of romero was 186 lbs. He was given two hours to shed one pound. In accordance with tweets from MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, the mind of the Illinois Athletic Commission overruled a physician on the scene and compelled Romero to stop cutting weight one hour into the two-hour time frame.
That is when he went into the scale and came up 0.2 pounds brief. His camp was allegedly mad and felt if given the other hour he had been presumed to be allowed, Romero would have hit his mark. He confirmed that in his interview with Joe Rogan in the weigh-ins that were early Friday night. “I don’t why the Commission decided to not give me the 2 hours,” Romero said.
Whittaker still wished to fight and was not interested in putting weight restrictions on Romero for Saturday (like we saw with Darren Till vs.’Wonderboy’ Thompson in Liverpool two weeks back ). The most important event will still occur, although Whittaker’s strap won’t be on the line.
Whittaker (19-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) was a -220 favored for most of the week. Night, the number was up into the -250/260 range. Romero was the +210 underdog (risk $100 to win $210). The total was 4.5 rounds (‘under’ -165,’over’ +145).
Whittaker has won eight successive fights since losing by first-round knockout to Thompson in UFC 170. His only defeat in the Octagon came from Court McGee. The 27-year-old New Zealander is 7-0 since moving upward from welterweight to the 185-pound loop. In the past seven fights of Whittaker, he has garnered three Performance of the Night bonuses and participated in 3 Fights of the evening.
Whittaker won the interim middleweight belt by beating Romero by unanimous decision (48-47 across) in UFC 213 in Las Vegas last July. He became the undisputed champ when Georges St. Pierre relinquished the title because of an illness.
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