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The hotly-anticipated UFC 248 main event fight between UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and longtime 185-pound contender Yoel Romero turned out to be one of the most shockingly terrible title fights in UFC history.
While there seemed to be plenty of blame to go around after the fact, ESPN’s Jeff Wagenheim placed most of it squarely on the 30-year-old champion’s shoulders.
“But this night was Adesanya’s failure,” Wagenheim writes. “He got the judges’ nod and retained his championship, and that’s not insignificant. But his night was supposed to be about more than that.”
‘Adesanya vs. Romero Was a Dud’
For Wagenheim (and many others who watched the fight), Adesanya’s performance left much to be desired.
The fighter had been calling for a superfight against Jon Jones after rising to No. 6 in the men’s pound-for-pound rankings, and some fans and media had even started to wonder if Adesanya was on his way to becoming as big a star as Jones has been over the last decade.
But Adesanya’s performance against the 42-year-old Romero threw lots of cold water on that whole idea.
“Adesanya vs. Romero was a dud,” Wagenheim writers. “There’s no other way to put it.”
Pundit Also Blasts Romero as Undeserved Title Challenger
While Wagenheim wasn’t happy with Adesanya’s performance at UFC 248, he also blasted Romero for getting the title shot in the first place.
“Romero was supposed to be a scary and exciting challenger, which was what made it OK, in some people’s eyes (Dana White’s, for instance), that he was getting an undeserved title shot, coming off two straight losses and three defeats in his past four fights,” Wagenheim writes.
Nevermind that No. 2 contender Paulo Costa had pulled out of his planned bout against the champ and that Adesanya had already stopped No. 1 contender and former champ Robert Whitaker in his previous fight.
For Wagenheim, Romero simply didn’t belong in the fight.
To be fair to the writer, the Cuban didn’t really end up proving he did deserve it. For one of the supposed best UFC fighters to never have won the title and one likely with his final chance at capturing UFC gold, Romero surprisingly didn’t fight as if either of those things were true.
Still, Romero’s history was already filled to the brim with disappointing performances. Up until this point in his career, that hadn’t been the case for Adesanya. But all that changed against Romero at UFC 248 in Las Vegas.
“This first title defense was all set up for him to send his star power into orbit,” Wagenheim writes. “It was his night to shine … until he didn’t.”
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