Bellator President Scott Coker remains optimistic about former UFC title challenger Yoel Romero's fighting future with the promotion.
Coker spoke with the media following Romero's split-decision loss to former Bellator light heavyweight champion Phil Davis in his promotional debut at Bellator 266 this past Saturday night in San Jose, California, and thought the Cuban MMA star performed well given the circumstances.
“I think that Phil is an amazing fighter, as we all know, and he just delivered another solid performance,” Coker said (h/t Sherdog). “He fought smart. Yoel is still dangerous. If he hits you, it’s over. I think Phil probably felt that power early on, so he tried to stick and move a little bit. He took him down a couple times. I loved the fight. I thought that it was a great fight. I’m telling you, Yoel will be back. This is, to me, his comeback fight. It’s been how long since he fought? We give him another fight, and he’ll be really, really ready for the next one. Again, give this guy another camp and another big fight, I think he’s going to come in and start throwing bombs on people. He’s a dangerous individual. You guys saw it. One punch, and it’s going to be over. He’s that guy.”
The loss to Davis was Romero's fourth consecutive defeat in a row and his first bout since UFC 248 in March 2020 where he lost a unanimous decision to current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Despite Romero's recent struggles, Coker continued on to say he believes there is still a plethora of options for him to face next whether it be at 185 or 205 pounds.
“I’m going to talk to him, because I’d love for him to maybe fight and maybe stay at 205,” Coker said. “Gegard [Mousasi] is going to be busy beginning of next year fighting Austin [Vanderford]. If that division opens up, and he wants to go down and fight the winner of that fight, we’d love to do that, too. We have a lot of exciting options for Romero, and I’m excited to put them all together.”
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