Yoel Romero explains what he wants to accomplish before moving to light heavyweight

It’s previously been suggested that former UFC middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero could soon move up to the 205 pound light heavyweight division. From the sounds of it, however, Romero will not be making that move any time soon.

His first priority, he says, is capturing gold in his current division.

“Yeah, of course [I want to stay at middleweight]. Me, my coaches and my team, we are only thinking about winning the belt at 185,” Romero told Michael Fiedel of The Body Lock. “I don’t know what’s going on now, about fighting in the other division but [I’m] only thinking about 185. I said I will take the belt [at middleweight] and then we can make a business deal with the UFC and go to another division and take another belt.”

Yoel Romero will take a big step in the direction of another middleweight title shot when he rematches Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza at UFC on ESPN 3 in Sunrise, Florida on April 27. He says this rematch with Jacare is currently dominating his focus, and that’ll start worrying about another fight with UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker once it’s over.

“I don’t think about Robert now,” he said. “I’m only thinking about this big fight [with Jacare].”

Yoel Romero has not fought since June of 2018, when he gave up a split decision to Whittaker. In his next most recent fight, he knocked out former UFC middleweight champ Luke Rockhold. Romero missed weight for both of these middleweight contests, which is the primary reason so many people are interested in seeing him migrate north to the light heavyweight division. He’s currently 13-3 overall.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 3/22/2019.