There is a glimmer of hope for Yoel Romero.
Earlier this year, Romero, the No. 1-ranked UFC middleweight, was the unfortunate collateral damage of the UFC’s newfound drive to make the most lucrative fights possible, when the title shot he had earned by knocking out Chris Weidman at UFC 205 was given to former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. The decision to bypass Romero in favor of a fighter who had never fought at middleweight before, and was coming out of retirement, bothered a great many people in the MMA community and threw fuel on the growing fires of complain surrounding the title defenses of current champion Michael Bisping. Well, all of that fervor may have been for nothing.
On the most recent episode of his podcast, Believe You Me, Bisping discussed his frustration with St-Pierre’s unwillingness to commit to a date for their fight.
“July 8, Las Vegas, International Fight Week is the date and the event that we are targeting. But Dana wouldn’t confirm the date at the press conference. But then I saw Dana a couple of weeks later when I was working at FOX and Dana said, ‘Yeah we’re still hoping for July 8.’
“Long story short, it looks like GSP is trying to push for a later date. I heard rumors of that a while ago from Ariel Helwani. I heard that they wanted September/October and that’s what the UFC told me as well. But I’m just throwing it out there right now, if he wants to wait until September or October, then he can go find himself another opponent, buddy. Because I call the shots. Without sounding like an a**hole, it’s my belt. I’m the champion and I’m not willing to sit around until September or October.
“This fight was discussed in January. A fight camp only takes eight weeks or six weeks. Fighting in September or October is ridiculous. July 8 is the date. I will be a little bit flexible and maybe go past that a little bit but I want to fight at International Fight Week, July 8. So Georges St-Pierre, get it together. Stop doing your f**king gymnastics, stop doing your backflips and whatever it is and let’s do this, buddy. Come on, sign the paperwork. You want it. You sat there at the press conference. You talked big. You sounded confident so sign the God d**n paperwork. It’s as simple as that.”
Bisping has maintained that he has no aversion to facing Romero and that accepting the St-Pierre fight was purely financial in motivation. But with St-Pierre seemingly dragging his feet, Bisping went on to say that if St-Pierre is not ready to fight this summer, Romero would move back to the front of the line.
“If he’s not ready then I guess Yoel Romero gets his title shot. Listen, I’m not afraid of Yoel Romero. If GSP wants to fight, of course, there’s a great story there. . . But, I’m not willing to sit around and he doesn’t get to call the shots. It’s my belt and I’m not some little a**hole waiting in the wings for my title shot. I’ve got the belt and I want to fight. I’m in my prime. I don’t want to sit around for a year. If we don’t fight until September or October, that would be a year and I’m not willing to wait a year for Georges St-Pierre.
“He doesn’t get to call the shots. And I’m not being a baby about it, if he needs a little extra time, we’ll do that. But you can’t keep me waiting around indefinitely.”
Romero has to be thrilled.
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