Robert Whittaker defeated (decision) Yoel Romero Saturday night at UFC 213 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV, and became UFC Interim Middleweight Champion.
The fight between Whittaker and Romero became the main event of UFC 213 after Amanda Nunes had to pull out of her fight against Valentina Shevchenko, earlier in the evening.
Early in the fight, Romero was able to take Whittaker down, but Whittaker was able to get back to his feet quickly:
Romero shoots, gets Whittaker down, but Whittaker pops right back up and gets out of it! #UFC213
In the third round, Whittaker was able to land a combo on Romero:
In round four, Whittaker was able to land plenty of shots on Romero:
.@RobWhittakerMMA has Romero rocked in round 4!!!! The crowd is going CRAZY here!! #UFC213
The fight ended with Whittaker on top of and landing shots to Romero as the match ended:
WHAT. A. FIGHT.
Whittaker (19-4) defeated Romero (12-2) via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47).
That’s one hell of a main event!
Whittaker was able to win despite injuring his left leg early in the bout.
“It bothered me pretty good,” said Whittaker. “I sustained an injury in camp. I thought it would be 100 percent, but he kicked it and set it back weeks. It was unstable. Had he got another good one, I would have dropped. It was pretty bad, but champions are made of this stuff.”
Whittaker, 26, has now won eight consecutive fights and will face Michael Bisping in a title unification fight next.