Coach wants Uriah Hall to fight Yoel Romero next after canceled Jacare Souza bout

Uriah Hall was disappointed his UFC 249 fight against Jacare Souza was canceled, but the middleweight was all class in the way he handled it.

For Sayif Saud, who is Hall’s head coach at Fortis MMA, he says it was tough for Hall to hear the news of the positive test. But, the 10th ranked middleweight quickly moved on and started to look at what is next for him.

“I’m not going to get too much into the drama and the timeline. We found out when everyone else found out. It’s unfortunate for everybody. We knew the fight was off and Uriah moved on,” Saud said to BJPENN.com. “The big question is where do we go from here? Uriah is so ready to fight, he’s in phenomenal shape. I haven’t seen him be tired in weeks. I want to get him in there soon because he’s really to make a run. We are ready for the next challenge.”

What made it harder for Hall is the fact he moved into the gym full-time to focus on fighting. Saud was impressed by his dedication to his career and they are now looking towards fighting again soon.

“Uriah was living in the gym, 100 percent into the fight. He was supposed to fight April 18 then May 9, so it sucked for him,” he said. “He had to go through the emotional ups and downs. But, he has handled really well and I think he handled it better than anybody else would have. Uriah handled it with class and he wrote that really nice tweet and they have had some private messages as well. It’s just on to see who is the next challenge.”

The hope for Sayif Saud is that Uriah Hall can get a fight soon, and have it against a big-name opponent. One opponent that Saud likes is Yoel Romero who is coming off a decision loss to Israel Adesanya as they believe that gets Hall closer to a title shot at 185 pounds.

“I want to see Uriah get a highly-ranked opponent like Yoel Romero. The champ just fought him and let’s see how Uriah does against him,” Saud explained. “That would be great for him if he could have a good performance against Yoel. I want to see him get closer to a title shot because Uriah vs. Israel would be such a great fight. There styles just mesh. Who wouldn’t want to see Uriah vs. Israel? That would be awesome.”

For Hall, the focus is back on fighting and working his way up the rankings and hopefully fighting very soon.

Would you like to see Uriah Hall fight Yoel Romero after the Jacare Souza bout was canceled?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 5/15/2020.