Yoel Romero Calls Out Anderson Silva For Interim Belt

Yoel Romero has a huge fight in his sights while he waits for champion Michael Bisping.

All-time great Anderson Silva may have other fights in mind, but “Soldier of God” believes he should take on the top-ranked 185-pound contender.

Romero has been on an incredible tear in his eight-fight win streak, caping it off with a vicious flying knee knockout in the third round of his match-up with former champ Chris Weidman at UFC 205 this past November. Romero was primed as the next candidate to challenge Bisping for the 185-pound throne, but all-time great welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre decided to make his Octagon return at 185 pounds and will challenge ‘The Count’ for the belt on a yet-to-be-determined date.

Romero isn’t happy with the former welterweight king jumping to the front of the middleweight title picture, but won’t wait around for Bisping to get his opportunity at becoming a UFC champion.

Romero joined The MMA Hour earlier today (Mon. March 13, 2017) to discuss what he wants to happen next in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career, and stated an interim middleweight title bout against former champ Silva interests him a great deal (quotes via BJPenn.com):

“A fight with Anderson would be great,” he said. “It would be great for me, it would be great for the fans, and a fight for an interim title would be really good in general.” 

“I’ve already fought everybody else,” he said. “I’ve already fought and beat everybody else. The only person that is amongst those great stars is Anderson. We both have to play with the same plans of St-Pierre. At this moment, this is almost like a chess match.”

Silva comes off his first win in almost five years when he took home a controversial unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson last month at UFC 209. With ‘The Spider’ now being called out by the likes of Romero and No. 10-ranked middleweight Kelvin Gastelum, perhaps Silva could be getting a massive step up in competition soon.