Deciding Against Knee Surgery, Yoel Romero Still Aims For Jacare
The title shot chances of former top-ranked middleweight Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza took a serious hit when Yoel Romero withdrew from their long scheduled UFC on FOX 15 co-main event with a torn meniscus in his knee.
Although Jacare submitted previous foe Chris Camozzi with an impressive first round armbar on the card, the door was still opened up for Luke Rockhold to take over the clear No. 1 contender spot with a thoroughly dominant submission of former title contender Lyoto Machida.
A win over Romero would have at least made it a heated debate, and now Souza is left in a bad spot awaiting the next opponent he’ll likely have to get past in order to continue working towards his thought-to-be-inevitable title shot. That opponent could still be Romero, however, as Ariel Helwani reported on last night’s UFC Tonight that the “Soldier of God” has decided to put off surgery to in order to potentially get his fight with Jacare rescheduled:
Yoel Romero elected to not have surgery on his torn meniscus in order to avoid having a long lay-off. Romero still hoping to fight Jacare.
— UFC Tonight (@UFCTonight) April 23, 2015
According to Romero’s manager Andy Mendez, he’s looking to get back to full strength within two to three months, putting him on a summer timeline for his anticipated match with Souza, which was also previously delayed when Jacare pulled out of February’s UFC 184 following a bout with pneumonia.
Mendez said Romero isn’t big on calling out opponents, but still wants the fight with Jacare nonetheless:
“Yoel doesn’t like to call people out,” Mendez said. “But yes he would like to be rebooked with (Jacare).”
With Jacare treading water as Chris Weidman faces Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of May 23’s UFC 187 and the winner presumably going on to face Rockhold, there’s not much of a better option left for him than to finally fight Romero.
Who is your pick to win should this fight actually happen?
