Dana White changes his tune on Israel Adesanya vs Yoel Romero fight

UFC president Dana White has done a U-turn when it comes to a potential UFC Middleweight Championship bout between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero.

Adesanya is coming off of a tremendous win at UFC 243 in Melbourne where he was able to stop Robert Whittaker and become the undisputed UFC Middleweight Champion. Ever since then there have been questions asked regarding what the next step will be for “The Last Stylebender”, especially after Paulo Costa’s injury problems put him out of the running for a title shot.

The attention turned towards Yoel Romero, and while Dana White initially seemed hesitant about the idea of pairing these two up together, it appears as if that’s no longer the case.

“He wants Romero and I respect that”.

Those are the short and sweet words of White who reportedly spoke with Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports about what’s next for Adesanya (h/t Jed I. Goodman).

With Romero having lost three of his last four fights, many fans called into question whether or not it was a bit unfair to have Romero jump to the front of the line and go after Adesanya. Of course, a lot of people also wonder how many of those three defeats should’ve actually stood given how close they were.

The other contenders in the division at this moment in time include Jared Cannonier and Darren Till, but both seemingly need another fight or two before the UFC commits to putting them in there with Adesanya. Robert Whittaker, on the other hand, is looking to bounce back from his aforementioned defeat to the champion and almost certainly won’t receive an immediate rematch.

White will be well aware of Adesanya’s growing star power within the world of mixed martial arts, and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles that as his undisputed title reign continues.

Who do you want to see Israel Adesanya fight next?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/12/2019.